Beauty and the Techie 2: Book of Secrets
by princessyuki08
Summary: Sequel to Beauty and the Techie. After Riley and Bianca broke up, Bianca has been taking every case and assignment to keep her away, when an assignment leads her back to her past and to everyone else, she can't help but go for the tresure hunt as well. She and Riley fell in love while finding treasure, will it happen again? Riley/OC. New OCs as well. Sequel is up.
1. Chapter 1: Alyssa

**AN: I decided to just give you guys the first chapter of the sequel because...I'm not sure. I think I'm just too nice. I still need ideas for those ideas for those two one-shots.**

**This chapter is dedicated to everyone who read Beauty and the Techie and asked for me to make a sequel. Thank you! You make my day. So this is the first chapter of Beauty and the Techie 2, obviously, but the movie doesn't actually start in the sequel till around Chapter Two. **

**You are also going to see new characters that aren't from the movie. We'll see how this goes, the last time I added an OC in a sequel, my co-writer and I got a couple of comments that our newest OC not being liked. I hope you guys like these two new characters. Alyssa, especially, is going to be kind of important and you'll see why. This story does have a tiny subplot that can be set up for a sequel to this one, but we'll talk about that when the time comes.**

**You guys are going to hate me a little for this chapter because well, you'll see. Just don't get the torches and pitch forks when you read how they broke up. **

**I don't own National Treasure or Book of Secrets. I own the characters you don't recognize. **

**Alyssa looks like Zooey Deschanel and Aaron looks like John Krasinski.**

**Happy reading. Don't kill the writer for this chapter, it will get better. **

**Chapter One: Alyssa**

I was playing piano in a restaurant waiting for our target to arrive. I watched the people go in and putting a tip in my hat as they left. It was about closing time. It was nice of them to do that, I didn't need the tips, I had five million dollars in the bank, but it was nice to see that people liked my playing. A young woman with long ebony hair walked into the room and sat down at a table by the piano.

"Evening. Bianca's the name. Sit yourself down." I greeted, "What's your name?"

"Alyssa." She introduced herself.

"Pleased to meet you." I smiled still playing the piano.

"You're very good." She complimented.

I laughed lightly, "I'm no Heifetz, but I enjoy it."

"It sounds nice." She complimented.

"Thanks." I replied looking at her, and then asked, "You're here cause of a broken heart, right?"

"Does it show?" She asked.

"A little, I looked like that after my last break up. When you've been through it, you can tell." I replied.

"Exactly. He never showed up."

I sighed. "Typical." I stated, not really wanting to say the real reason. "That's why I alone now."

"You are?"

I nodded, "Uh-huh. I finish work. Go home, read a book, go for a walk, have a shot of rum or glass of wine or whatever I have on hand, then go to bed."I started playing again.

"Nice and simple."

"Stay away from falling in love, that's my motto." I shook my head.

"But I can't." She replied.

"Neither can I." I said, "That's the problem."

"So what was your man like?"She asked.

"A prodigy with computers, my brother's best friend..." I replied. There were so many other things I could say, but chose to change the subject on to her. "What's your guy like?"

"He's just a normal every day guy." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh, that's cool. He's charming, I bet." I questioned.

"Yeah, he has a really good way words. You?" She replied.

"He's more of a goofy, forgetful genius than charming." I said.

"Bianca, your phone!" Aaron called from another room.

"Who is it?"I asked.

After a few seconds, he answered. "Your Dad."

I took a deep breath and took my phone and went in to the other room. This was going to be interesting. I hadn't talked to anyone in almost three months Not really Dad a lot, a couple of times Abby, once in a great while Sandusky, not much of Ben, not at all to Riley. I kept to myself and talked to Aaron, and well now Alyssa. I tried to leave my past behind me for the most part.

"Hi Dad." I greeted him.

"Bianca Eva Gates, where are you? No one's seen you, and barely anyone has heard from you since the almost wedding." He was frantic.

"Right now...France." I replied calmly.

"What are you doing in France?"

"I'm working. I had a choice between two assignments, I needed to clear my head so, I took this one."

He took a deep breath. "You've never been one to run away when things get bad. You've made them worse most of the time, but running away is a first for you. He feels bad enough and he doesn't know the half of it. And I know the rest of it would kill him if he knew."

"Good, he should, dad. Why promise a commitment, if you're not going to go through with it?" I spat.

"I'm not the one you're upset with, so don't start that with me. You may be an adult now, but watch your tone when you're speaking with me." He shot.

"Sorry, I've been doing that lately. I don't know what's up with me. I've become a dragon lady, or, so Aaron calls it."

"You're working with _him_ again?" Dad never liked Aaron. I never really got why.

"Finding him was part of my assignment."

He sighed. "When are you coming home, Bianca?"

I sighed, "I'm supposed to be back in my office next week. My assignment's complete; I just found who I've been looking for. I'm reporting in on Monday, although I really would rather not come back and face the music."

"You have to face it sooner or later; you might as well face it now. I know you're coming back for the president's birthday, why don't you come back to stay this time?"

I sighed. "I know."

"Here, Ben wants to talk to you."

"Wait, Ben's living with you now?" My question was never answered; Dad had given the phone to Ben.

"Bianca, I'm putting you on speaker, Riley and I are working on a presentation I'm giving at the archives."

"I'll hang up then and you can get back to work." I suggested.

"No…I want to talk to you I never hear from you anymore. It's like you disappeared."

"Yeah, Ben, I'm the magician that never finished their disappearing act and didn't really plan too." I replied sarcastically.

"Your luck been bad lately?"

"Not completely, just complicated."

"Compli-" Riley started.

Ben cut Riley off. "What happened?"

"Not sure, Ben. I'm fine though. I've been working a lot lately, a lot of murder cases that aren't as...clean as some of my others were. After a while, it got to much on a day to day basis so right now for a break, I'm locating people and bringing them in. I just finished an assignment. I also just finished a project that I did for fun that just came out in the states." I replied.

"What project? You didn't say anything about a project." Ben replied confused.

"Oh, I bought the rights to Alice in Wonderland, and wrote a fictional novel for it, like Gregory Maguire does for fairy tales. I was bored and had nothing to do. It's called According to Alice. I'm thinking about writing something about Robin Hood or a fairytale next."

"You're B. Fences?! That's not- You wrote that book?! It's outselling mine, four to one! You couldn't let me write a book and let it succeed?!"Riley yelled.

"Who else could be B. Fences, Riley? I didn't even try to think of a pen name." I replied to his first comment irritated, "And I read your book, Riley! Yeah, you could have cited your sources better! Oh, wait, that wouldn't look to good to say your FBI Agent fiancé, well ex-fiancé now, accidentally, gave you all your information because she can't keep her mouth shut." I yelled back.

"I researched my sources!" He retorted.

"Yeah, after I told you which ones were real and which ones weren't! I even told you ones you hadn't even heard of. I was the reason you could write that damn book! Did I get a thank you? No, I got pushed aside! And then stood up at the altar! You never showed up! Do you know how long I waited?! All night! You didn't even have the decency to call!"

"All night? What sort of person stands at an altar all night?" he asked.

"The person who was in love with you!" I shot back.

"Is this about the book or about the wedding?" he asked.

"Both! All of it!" I said. "I'm not going to be second in your life. Not anymore, it's exhausting."

Riley was silent for a moment. "You're not second." I laughed, disbelieving. He added "I didn't give you credit in the book because I didn't want you to lose your job because you told me all that stuff."

"And the wedding?" I asked.

"I-," he faltered. "I can't explain. I just got carried away."

"Oh come on, you've had six weeks to come up with a better excuse," I retorted.

"I told you the truth, I thought there was some merit in that-" he said.

I hung up the hurt to much to listen right now. I turned; Alyssa was leaning against the door frame, looking at me.

"That him?"

I nodded and looked down, "Yeah."

"He didn't show up to your wedding?" she asked incredulously. I could only nod this time. "He must have some reason."

"All I know is that he was distracted by his book and he didn't show up." I turned away and crossed my arms because I absolutely wasn't going to cry. And if I failed at that, no one was going to see…

"You ever think he might be sorry?" she asked gently.

"He'll be sorry for the rest of his life, then."

She sighed. "I think you should give your little technophile the benefit of the doubt. You don't know what happened-"

"Yeah, I do. He was too carried away with with his book and forgot."

She nodded and went on, "And even if it was his book, forgive and forget. Trust me, forgiving can't make it worse. Forgiving won't make what he did right or ok, but I can tell you miss him,"

"I don't miss him. I'm just fine without him."

"No, you're not. You're not over him at all. You've got it bad."

"I do not have it bad." I retorted.

"Then prove it. Go back home and face the music."

"Fine, but you're coming with us, Howe." I agreed. I walked out of the room.

Her eyes went wide. "I think you might have-" She tried to deny it.

"It's okay, Miss Howe," I told her, "I'm Agent Gates. I'm from the FBI, Department of International Affairs. You made a call about your brother, Ian Howe, a couple of months ago. They sent me and my partner, Agent Montgomery, here to retrieve you. We will be guarding you until the government can make arrangements to put you into the Witness Protection Program. Ian is in prison, but we still have our concerns about him, so we want to make sure your safe." I said in a serious tone, and then added lightly to take a little bit of the edge off, "I like your hair by the way. The dark hair seems to suit you better. I think I like it better than the blonde hair." I said to her, and then called to Aaron asking, "Hey Aaron, feel like going back to D.C.?"

He smirked. "I thought you'd never ask."

"How did you know who I was?" Alyssa asked me.

"Your eyes." I replied simply.


	2. Chapter 2: Facing Reality

**AN: This chapter is dedicated to missalyssap. Thank you for following and reviewing. I'm glad you like the twist. **

**We're in the movie now! Yay! I don't own National Treasure 2 or anything from the movies. **

**Chapter Two: Facing Reality**

We arrived in the U.S. the next morning. After we got off the plane, Aaron and Alyssa got the bags and I called us a cab. Aaron and Alyssa were headed to a hotel we booked last night, and I was headed to the National Archives to see Ben's presentation. I've seen every one; I wasn't going to miss this one.

When I got to the Archives, I asked a guard where the presentation was, and when I got to the presentation room, I sat in the back and listened to him speak.

"So, recapping, the Knights of the Golden Circle was a southern extremist group operating in the north to subvert union forces. Had Thomas not burned the legendary missing pages from the Booth Diary, the killers may have found a vas treasure of gold and the union would have lost the Civil War." He finished his speech, and thanked the audience. Everyone cheered.

"I'd like to thank Ben and Patrick Gates." The Curator said. Dad and Ben went on stage. "And tell you what a wonderful addition Thomas Gates is to our Civilian Heroes exhibit." He thanked them and went off the stage.

"Thank you Dr. Nichols. I only wish my grandfather had been here to see this wonderful day." Dad thanked him.

"Excuse me," said the man next to me. Everyone looked to him.

_Should have sat farther back._

"I have a question I'd like to ask. What do you think happened to that Booth Diary page that was pulled out of the fire?" The man asked.

"We may never know." Ben replied.

"Perhaps, perhaps not…" He leaned into the railing, "You see I have one of those great-great-granddaddies just like you, way up in my family tree, name is Silos Wilkinson. He used to tell a story about the night Lincoln was shot. As Silos tells it, Booth didn't seek out Thomas Gates regarding the treasure map that night; it was Thomas who called the meeting, a meeting to plan the assassination of Lincoln."

"That's a crock of crap." I muttered.

"How absurd." Ben retorted.

"That's a lie." Dad retorted.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you one of the missing pages from the infamous diary of John Wilkes Booth with the name Thomas Gates written on a list along with all of the other killers."

_That doesn't prove anything. It could have been a to-do list. Names can be on those things…_

A few minutes later the room was emptied out. I walked out of the room knowing Ben would show me the page later after I talked to him if I asked. There was something about that guy that gave me the creeps.

Twenty minutes later, the guy came out with the curator. Dad and Ben came out after them. They didn't see me.

"Ya know, if there was anything I could have arrested him for, for saying that I would have." I told them as I strolled over to them.

"Bianca! Your hair- You're here!" Ben greeted me first, quickly forgetting what just happened for a moment. I knew he'd notice and say something about the hair right off. I haven't cut my hair in years, and I came back with it looking like it was cut off by a blade or something.

"Bianca…" Dad greeted and walked past.

Ben and I watched him go. After he left the archives, I replied, "I am and yeah it's shorter and it's complicated."

"I thought you were France."

"I came back-"

"For Dad."

"He asked, and I got a little bit of sense talked into me. So, we came back."

"We?" Ben asked.

"Aaron and I, and we brought someone along." I wasn't sure how and if I should explain Alyssa to him.

"Where are you staying?"

"Well, Alyssa and Aaron are at a hotel or something for now till we figure out what's going on. They were kinda jet lagged. I don't know where I'm going. I kinda don't have a home to go back to right now."

"Then you're coming home with me and Dad." Ben replied. I knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Okay, just for tonight. Then I have to find somewhere where Aaron, Alyssa, and I can stay cause Dad hates Aaron." I replied.

"Alright."

"So, what's with the creepy guy with the Booth Diary Page?"

"He thinks our great-grandfather assassinated Lincoln." He replied simply, "And he thinks the page is proof of that."

"I heard that part, but what I don't get is the page, yes it has the conspirators on there, but really all they probably were at the time were people to see on a to-do list. It's obviously misunderstood."

"You could be right about that."

"I'm always right."

"To say that would be going a bit too far." He replied as we got into the cab.

When we got home, we saw Dad going through some of his stuff muttering.

I sighed, "I'm gonna go find book and read outside like we used to, wanna join?"

After a little bit, Ben nodded.

A half an hour after being outside, Riley came walking to the house looking dejected.

"Where's the Ferrari?" Ben asked him.

"IRS impounded it." He replied.

"Funny story, my accountant set up a corporation on an island that didn't exist and assured me that's how rich people do it," He explained. I stifled a laugh.

"And I got audited and slapped with a huge fine, plus interest." He said, and set the giant cardboard cutout he was holding down. "Do you know what taxes are in 5 million dollars?"

"Six million?" I asked from the space I had behind Ben, I was sitting behind him reading Sherlock Holmes.

"Six million dollars." Riley replied, as if he had not heard me, "Hello Bianca, I see you finally finished your "disappearing act". You got your hair cut."

"And you're in a suit and learned how to use a razor." I pointed out as well, "I'm glad we're done pointing out the obvious."

"Well, enough about me, what's new with you?" Riley asked Ben.

"Well, my girlfriend kicked me out. I'm living with my dad." Ben started with the stuff Riley already knew, and then said, "And my family killed President Lincoln."

"I still don't believe that. I think he was on a to-do list." I commented.

Riley smiled, "Alright."

"I need your help." Ben told him, and then added, "Both your help."

"Why?" I asked.

"How can I help?" Riley replied at the same time.

"I need your help to get back into my house." He told Riley, and then looked back at me, "I need your help to get what I need." He replied.

"Alright, but I really can't get anything heavy…" I replied.

His face deadpanned. "Why?"

"It's complicated."

"It always is with you. What happened this time?"

"Well, you know when I said the reason for my hair being short was complicated?" I answered his question with a question.

"A serial killer cut it." Ben guessed.

"Very close. He had me by my hair. Last time I ever French braid my hair on a case, anyway, Aaron cut it, and as he fought with the killer I shot him, the killer not Aaron."

"Who's Aaron?" Riley asked.

"Where else did the killer get because there's more to that story."

I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt to show them the bandages on my arms, each of which stopped at my elbow. "It goes from my wrist to the inner part of my elbow." I spared them the details. In a sense it looked like I had just come out of Professor Umbridge's office after serving detention with her. The lunatic decided to write something on both of my arms. The right one said _Heart_. The left said _Trouble_. I couldn't even begin to describe how sick this bartender was.

I rolled my sleeves back down and said, "It complicated and I don't want to talk about it." I changed the subject, "So when are we going to your house?"

"Tonight." Ben answered.

**AN2: Anyone like Bianca's theory about the page?**


	3. Chapter 3: Can't Help It

**AN: The title of the chapter...you'll see why it's named that as you read. Riley and Bianca, they just click. It's like a magnet. I can't help it, neither can she apparently. She's mad at him, and upset with him, and angry, she has a lot negative feelings toward him, but amongst those bad feelings are the good, and she's still in love with him. She can't help it. **

**Oh did anyone catch the Muppet's reference at the beginning of chapter one? It's from I Hope That Something Better Comes Along from The Muppet Movie. The first draft of this chapter actually had them singing a song. I don't know what I was thinking. It was just one of those days. I was bored and I guess I had Cabin Fever...Cabin Fever, yeah. Okay I will quit it with the Muppet references, I'm trying to be funny cause usually it just doesn't work. Anyone else like that? Not being funny, but that's how I always am. I'm not funny unless it comes accidentally. **

**Okay, I'll stop talking for now. **

**Happy Reading!**

**Chapter Three: Can't Help It**

"I can't believe you have to break into your own house." Riley told him.

"What can you not believe about that? She kicked him out. You're still in our apartment and I haven't said anything about it."

"You just did."

"I haven't kicked you out." I pointed out.

"You can't, we rented it together." He rationalized nonchalantly, "And you've been gone for the past six weeks."

"You have no money, I do and I need a place to live."

"Then move back in." Riley replied as if nothing happened.

"You did not just say that." I replied, "I can't believe you just said that."

"Anyway back to the topic." Ben said pulling us back to focus, "I'm breaking in because I need to get Abigail's ID badge. She has access to the Booth Diary page."

"Why don't you just ask Abigail for her help?"

"She changed the alarm code, Riley." Ben replied.

"Smart Abby…" I commented.

"She's not gonna talk to me." Ben continued.

Riley took off his backpack as we approached the house, "Alright, you have thirty seconds after the alert starts to sound off the alarm. Go." Riley told him, getting ready to work his Techie magic with the alarm. Ben put in his key to the gate, unlocked it, and then the house and we went inside. Ben and I went to the foyer, and Riley went over to the alarm, "Now I know I'll probably regret asking this but what happened with you and Abigail?"

"I don't know, ya know. I don't know. She started to use the word 'so' a lot." Ben replied.

"So?" Riley replied, not really getting it.

"Did she use the word 'fine' a lot too?"

"Yeah, what's the problem with the problem with the word 'fine'?" Ben asked.

"Fine is the word that sometimes women use when things are bothering you but you don't want to talk about it or you don't want to bother the guy with it."

"It's like you saying it complicated…"Ben replied, sort of understanding it.

"Yeah, a little like that." I replied, "How did she use the word 'so'?"

"Like 'so I guess my opinion doesn't matter', 'so you always seem to know what's best', 'so I guess I'm invisible'."

Riley and I both gave him a 'Really?' look. I decided to speak up. "Those are definitely bad things to hear from a woman." I replied to Ben.

"So now I've moved out, dividing the furniture…"

Riley's gadget beeped and he put the alarm back together. "Women, you can't live with them, especially if they change the alarm codes."

I rolled my eyes, "If you communicate with them, listen to them, and give them the respect they deserve, they wouldn't change the alarm codes on you."

Ben looked at Riley and then looked down at his watch, "You did that in 25 seconds."

"That's why I tell people to get a dog." Riley replied.

"Which is utterly ironic cause you're a cat person." I countered as we followed Ben to Abby's room.

"Got it." He said as he pulled out her ID badge from her dresser.

"Alright, let's go." Riley said, starting to move toward the door.

We're stopped by a car light shining through the window. Ben and I looked out the window.

"That's not Abigail's car." Ben said. "She's on a date."

"Her date has a pretty nice car though. Kinda wishing I were her right now." I commented.

"Isn't that the guy, the White House guy?" Riley asked.

"She's going out with someone from the white house?" I asked them.

Riley laughed, "He's weird."

"Oh my, is that Connor? Ew…"

"You know him too?" Ben asked.

"Knew him, before he became a curator for the White House…" I replied, "Ew…"

We headed down the stairs.

"Wow what clever repartee, she must really like him." Riley commented as we looked for a place to hide.

I found a hiding place in the closet, Riley ended up finding the same one.

"Find your own hiding place." I whispered to him.

"I can't, she's almost to the door."

"This closet isn't big enough for the two of us."

"It used to be." Riley replied as the front door opened.

"Riley!" We heard Abigail call after a few minutes. "Come out here."

I pushed Riley out of the closet annoyed and walked out of it.

"Hey what are you doing here?" Riley tried to play it cool. "I mean it's your house, but, hey I sent you a copy of my book, did you get a chan-"

"No, I haven't read it yet." She replied, "Hello Bianca, it been awhile. You haven't been to the Archives since-"

"Hey Abby." I greeted, not really trying to hide anything, "Yeah, sorry, I've been busy."

"Maybe we could talk about it."

"Hey, I know you." Riley said to Connor, "You're the White House curator. Hey, I'm Riley, we met… uh back-"

"Oh right, your Ben's assistant."

"What?" Riley asked.

"Maybe I should go." Connor said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry really." Abby replied. He asked her to go to dinner and she declined, and then they made plans to go out on Friday. He left.

"I cannot believe you broke in." Abby said to Ben, "What'd you take?"

"It's just my things."

Abby took the box and then said, "Hand it over, Ben."

Ben sighed and handed her the ID, "I need to see the Booth Diary Page."

"You saw the page yourself. There is no treasure map on it." Abby replied.

"It's a cipher leading to a treasure map." Ben replied.

My jaw dropped, "You didn't tell me that. When I asked about the page, all you said was that he was on a list of conspirators, not that it had anything to do with treasure."

"So, he stopped telling you things?" Abby asked.

"Apparently so, I didn't know being gone for six weeks could do that." I replied irritated.

"Did anyone spectral image the page?" Ben asked Abby.

"No need to, the ink writing on the page is clearly visible" Abby said going down the hall.

"It could have been erased, or faded. You're the director of document conservation. You know all this." Ben replied, following her. I followed him. Riley and I both stopped at the door.

"It's not up to me. It's not my department." She told him.

"That department reports to your department." He replied, "Abigail, one look under infrared. You can have the Boston Tea Tables."

She turned, "Both of them?"

He agreed.

"Freaks." Riley murmured.

After a few seconds I gave in, and murmured back, "And this all could have been avoided."

"How?"

I sighed. "My badge. I'm FBI, working for a different branch, but still FBI, if I said I need that page for an investigation, they would have let us see it. Actually your badge, not sure, but you might have been able to use yours too."

"I haven't been on a case in over a month."

"Surprised your ass hasn't been fired."

"It did."


	4. Chapter 4 Part One: A Cipher

**AN: This whole chapter is dedicated to missalyssap. Thank you for the help and everything! This whole chapter is for you. The next part will be out soon. **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Four Part One: A Cipher**

All four of us went to the Archives to check out the Booth Diary Page.

"We've been looking at this page for hours." Riley complained, "There's nothing there."

Ben sighed taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Ben, I really don't think we're going to find anything on this page." Abby told him.

"I'm sorry, Ben, as much as I'd like to think there's a cipher on here, I'm have to agree with Abby and Riley. There's nothing here."

"Well, look at it this way, in a hundred years, no one is going to remember anyone involved in the Lincoln Assassination besides Booth."

"That's not true. Do you know the expression his name is Mudd?"

Riley nodded. "Yes of course."

"You do," Ben looked at him, "Do you know the origin of the expression?"

"Does anyone, but you?"

"I do!" I replied. Ben told me the story years ago.

"Doctor Samuel Mudd was convicted of being a co-conspirator in the Lincoln Assassination. The evidence was circumstantial, he was later pardoned, but it didn't matter. Mudd's name still lives in infamy." Ben explained, "I will not let Thomas Gates name be Mudd."

"Ben," Abby said to get his attention, "Look at this." She had found something on the page. "See that?"

Ben looked at it, "Now that's quite something isn't it."

"Yeah, it says smudge." Riley commented. Ben and Abby looked at him, "It's nothing."

"No, I don't think so, Riley." I replied, looking at the page a bit closer, "Do you guys think it could be like excess from one of the other pages?"

"It's possible." Abby rationalized.

"Not probable, but possible, I guess." Ben replied.

"And that's what you said when I said the Charlotte was a ship." I replied.

"Alright, let's guess you are right about it being excess from another page, but it would make more sense for it to be on the other side of this page than one of the other pages."

"It was a guess, Ben. I'm a FBI profiler; I work with people not documents. I'm not supposed to be an expert in…" I replied and looked to Riley, "smudges?" I asked him if that was the word he used not exactly remembering fully. He nodded, and I finished, "Smudges."

Abby scanned the page again and zoomed in.

"Residual ink from the facing page, flip it." Ben told Abby. She did as he asked. "The letters are backwards. It's a cipher."

"Yes, it is." Abby agreed.

"Here we go again…"I said watching them go through the cipher.

"This could prove his story." Ben said.

"Unless you can decode the cipher, this does not prove his theory." Abby told him.

"That's okay, that's okay, all we need a five letter keyword." Ben replied.

"What's the keyword?" Riley asked.

"I don't know yet." Ben answered.

"Alright…uh…" Riley started.

"Can I get a print out of this?" Ben asked Abby. Abby agreed and printed it out.

"There's a billion words in the English language. There's gotta be a logical, let's start from the beginning." Riley said and started to list off words.

"I don't want to rain on your parade here, Ben, but I don't think this is going to stop Dr. Nichols from announcing the discovery of the page tomorrow." Abby told him.

"No, no, wait can't you just…can you just ask him to wait till I prove Thomas is innocent?" Ben asked her.

She turned, "What if he isn't innocent?" She gave him the copy and went back to the computer. After we were done the guys left, and it was just Abby and I. We were cleaning up the area a bit making it look as if weren't here.

"I'm surprised you stayed." Abby said after a little bit.

"I can leave if you want." I offered.

"No, I miss seeing you." She replied, "How have you been?"

"You mean how have I been since-" I started, she nodded, "I've been better, but I am doing better than I was. It's hard, especially since-"

"You and Riley were close." She finished, "A couple of times it looked as if you two still were."

"Yeah, I don't know what it is…I just miss him. I love him. I can't forget what he did, nor do I really want to forgive him for it." I replied.

"You're probably not going to forget what happened that night. Forgiving though, you might find in time you might be able."

"Maybe."

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" Abby asked.

"No, not really. I, personally, don't my partner Aaron and Alyssa have a hotel for the night. Ben said I should stay with him and Dad-"

"My house is huge, a little too big for me, to stay in by myself, I've discovered. Maybe tonight you could stay with me, and tomorrow we can talk about Aaron and Alyssa staying too."


	5. Chapter 4 Part Two: Talking to Abigail

**AN: This part of the chapter is dedicated to missalyssap. Thank you for the ideas, the support, and everything. Hopefully this part turned out okay. **

**My experience is limited when it comes to writing about murders, and when it comes to proposals I have really no experience. **

**missalyssap gave me the idea for the proposal, so they do get something in return for that as a thank you. **

**(Phillipfan24, you have one too. I don't really hear much from you. So, you have a prize when you choose it.)**

**(jaejoong1, I am not forgetting about you. Next chapter will be dedicated to you.)**

**I hope you guys like the chapter I put a lot of thought into it. Next chapter we'll be back in movie verse and Aaron and Alyssa will be back. Aaron is in this chapter briefly. **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Four, Part Two: Talking to Abigail**

I agreed to Abby's proposal, I'd be a fool not to, but told her there was something I had to do first and I would meet her at her house in twenty minutes. There was something I felt I had to do first.

"Hi I'd like a cheeseburger with everything on it except for tomatoes and Five Guys style fries." I told the cashier, who looked pissed. It was 10 pm and the people were leaving. I guess he thought he was going to get to go home earlier than 11.

_Could this have waited till tomorrow? …No. _

He gave me the cup and I got sweet tea and waited for my food. When I got my food, I hailed a cab and went back to Abby's.

**Abigail's POV**

"Alright, I see what you mean. She was acting a bit different when we left, well different from herself. She went to go do something before coming back."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, she said she'd be back after she was done. Now what did you want me to try to find out?"

"What happened to her arms, why they're bandaged"

"Why are her arms bandaged?"

"Something happened on a case. If it was just a cut she would have said more than it was complicated."

"It's none of our business."

"Please Abigail…"

"Fine, I'll call you back after I find out."

"Thanks." He hung up. I hung up the phone.

_How am I going find that out? I don't even know how I would bring that up…Actually, I might. _

**Bianca's POV:**

When I got back, Abby was still up drinking hot tea and watching the news.

"I'm surprised you're still up." I told her.

"Not tired and I want to hear about your cases in Europe."

I looked at her as if she had gone mad. "You hate hearing about my cases. You think they're disturbing."

"I guess I've had a change of heart in the past few weeks."

"Or lost your marbles."

"I'm not going to take offence to that." She replied, "Now tell me about your cases."

I shrugged, "Nothing happened. I found my partner Aaron, found Alyssa, and had a few cases in between. Nothing really exciting happened." I replied dismissing the question sort of. I didn't want to talk about the bartender case. I just wanted to forget it.

We chatted a little more while I ate, and then I went to bed.

**_-Dream-_**

_"I know the plan. It'll go off without a hitch." I told Aaron._

_"Alright, but I don't like it." Aaron replied. _

_"Of course you don't it's my idea." I replied, as owner came by. "Louis, the next time you come over here, I'm going to need you to throw me out of the pub." I told him. We were currently in London working on a case. _

_Louis looked at me strangely, "Alright…" He left._

_I splashed some Guinness on me and then padded myself dry with my napkin, so I would still smell like beer, but I wouldn't be wet. _

_"That's not how you're supposed to drink."_

_"It is if I'm supposed to be working." I replied. I took off my jacket and handed him. "Do you have your Swiss army knife?"_

_He sighed and handed it to me, "Here"_

_I took it and started cutting parts of the dress I was wearing. It was older and tight. I was trying to go for an alcoholic hooker. The killer murders people with problems. I think that what I've got is a pretty good start; I'll make up some sob story to tell the killer to lure him in to take me instead of an innocent victim. I cut off a sleeve off my dress and couple of slits and the bottom when I was done cutting holes and pieces of my dress. I gave the knife back to Aaron. _

_When Louis came back, he asked, "Do you really want me to do this?"_

_"Yes Louis."_

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yes, now throw me out." I replied, "And make it look realistic."_

_"Not a problem." He replied with a wink. "Aaron, hand me her purse." He told him. Aaron did. Louis rolled his shoulders back and changed his persona, "Alright you, out of my pub! I'm tired of you loitering around here every night. Get business somewhere else and stop bothering the men in the pub! This is a respectable pub, not one of those dirty, slimy places you and your friends hang around." He yelled at me tossing me out. He threw the purse at my head. _

_"Ow…"I said rubbing my head, messing up my hair a bit, and then yelled at him in the best British accent I could manage, "Oi! What the 'ell, mate? Don't get your knickers in a twist! All I was doin' is askin' if the gentleman wanted some company tonight." _

_As I walked down the street to the next pub, I counted down the things I knew in my mind to be true about this case:_

_1. The murder is a bartender._

_2. His victims are predominantly hookers._

_3. He tortures them first._

_4. He slowly kills them._

_5. The girls are begging to die when they kill him. _

_6. He videotapes his "conquests". _

_7. He hates women. _

_8. He drugs his victims to relocate them. _

_9. He had a partner, but the partner anonymously turned him in for a plea bargain._

_10. I'm most likely going to be drugged and tortured, and hopefully won't be killed before Aaron gets to me with back up._

_11. I'm not too thrilled about this case, but I know what I have to and I'm okay with that. It's my job. _

_12. Aaron will find me. I have locator chip placed in my locket and in my shoe, so he should be tracking me._

_13. If Riley had shown up two weeks ago, I would be on my honeymoon now and not here. _

_That was my last thought before I went through the pub and to my doom. _

_I don't remember how I got to wherever the hell I was, the details were fussy. _

_I remember waking up and having to breathe through my nose and being tied to a chair by several layers of gauze bandages. I remember not being able to move._

_"I was wondering how long you would be out, now the fun can begin…well…mine." He said circling me. "What a sad story you have," He said as he crouched down to my level, "don't worry though soon you'll forget all about it, and then I'll put you out of your misery." He said, pulling a knife out of his pocket. He pushed up the sleeve of my left arm past my elbow. He turned my arm so my palm was facing up, and cut a deep incision into my arm. _

_I couldn't scream. Tears started to well in my eyes. I was never really one for blood and pain. A bullet grazing my arm is one thing, that was fast, but the way he was cutting into my skin was slow and steady, full of concentration and focus, it was like it was his mission to do this. Most likely in his mind, it was. It was slower than the bullet and hurt so much more. _

_When he noticed my reaction to his work, he backhanded me hard. I swallowed and kept my head down; he continued to make incisions into my arm and moved on to the other one. This was the easy part. It was part he didn't get off on. It was his ritual before his psychotic high. _

_When he was done, he cleaned and bandaged my arms, untied the gag around my mouth, and started to clean his long massive butcher knife, preparing for the slow torturous kill. This was the part I was afraid of. _

**_If I speak, he'll only end my life sooner. That's what happened to the other girls. He gets off on the screams as he slowly brings them to their grave. This was his favorite part. And me, I was going to die. I was going to end up just like the other women._**

_He finished cleaning the knife and started to come towards me._

I screamed, opening my eyes. I looked around. The room I was in was dark, but I was in a bed. I was alive. It took me almost to remember where I was and that I wasn't in danger anymore. I got out of the bed, took a sip of water from the water bottle I had on the nightstand and then went back to bed.

**Abigail's POV:**

"I'm sorry, Riley. I couldn't find out anything. I tried; she wouldn't talk about it with me. She knows how I feel about her cases."

"Thanks for trying." Riley sighed, "There's just something off about her."

"I'll keep an eye on her. She's sleeping, tomorrow morning before I go to work, I'll try again."

"Because that's an absolutely wonderful breakfast discussion topic: '_Good morning, I hope you slept well; would you like some toast or fruit or anything; oh by the way were you almost killed in Europe?_' Yeah, that'll go over really well."

"I'll figure how to say it to her. Goodnight Riley."

"Night…" Riley replied, "Th-" He started to say and a terrified scream cut him off. "Okay, now I get what's going on. Don't ask her about the case anymore. She had a couple of cases like this a few months before we-"

"Yeah, what do I do about it?"

"Okay, after she's asleep, go up to the room she's in. Unless she's drastically changed her habits, her phone should be on the closest thing to her, most likely a desk or nightstand because she doesn't like it on the bed next to her pillow. In her phone, in her media files, there might still be a playlist that will help you. If she hasn't deleted it, which would be a little surprising, a good surprising-"

"Riley!" I tried to get his attention back to what he was talking about.

"Alright, the playlist, if it's still there, I don't remember the title of it, but it is all piano, and if you scroll through the list there should be the songs: How Do I Live, Breathe, When You Say Nothing at All, Moon River, 100 Years, Far Away, So Sick, Hallelujah, and the Theme from While You Were Sleeping. It's basically a playlist of love songs on piano. The first song on the list should be The Way You Look Tonight or I'll Make Love to You. Put it on a low volume level that is still audible and put it on wherever is closest to her head that isn't on the bed near her pillow. You won't hear another scream again tonight. If it happens again, I'll tell you how to switch it into the automatic. This does have a timer on it, so the playlist'll turn off on its own and go back to her home screen. Speaking of home screens, does she still have the same one on her phone?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen it, what was it before?"

"Never mind, it's not important." Riley replied, "Thanks for calling me back."

"Bye Riley."

"Bye." He hung up. I put my phone on the table and then followed his instructions. His playlist was still on her phone. The first song was The Way You Look Tonight as he first guessed. The last song was I'll Make Love to You. I pressed play. As I left her room, I was wearing a small smile upon my face. Her home screen of her phone was of the two of them, it was a picture I had taken on vacation right before they had gotten together, I don't know what they were talking about, but there was a moment were they had stopped talking and just locked eyes with each other, both closed lip smiles, but there was something similar in their eyes. Awhile after I got together, I sent her the picture and dated it.

_She's still in love with him. _

**Bianca's POV:**

**_-Dream-_**

_"I want to show you something." Riley said after we went outside to get some air. We were at a party to celebrate the treasure exhibit opening at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. We'd been dating for a few months now and it's been going fantastic. _

_"What?"_

_"When we were helping going through the treasure to split up amongst the museums, I found this really interesting object. I talked to Ben about what it was and apparently it was from Ireland. I don't know the exact history of it."_

_"Ri, we're at a party. I don't think we're required to talk about treasure or history the whole time."_

_"Don't worry, I don't remember the history. The point I was get at was that the object signifies different things. And if one of us were to wear it." Riley said pulling a little black box out of his pocket. My jaw dropped slightly as he opened the box. It was a silver Irish Claddagh ring, with an emerald as the heart. "No more thinking, no more waiting around, or maybe's like we did when we first got together. I'm in love with you. I want to marry you. My question for you though is do you want to marry me?"_

_I smiled widely, "Yes!" I cried happily. He slipped the ring on me and I kissed him passionately. He kissed me back happily without missing a beat. _

**_'Riley…'_**

**AN2: So did anyone guess Riley was the person Abigail was talking to at the begining before I told you who it was? If not who did you guys think it was at first? Hindsight is 20/20, but is there anyone who knew before hand? **


	6. Chapter 5: Death

**AN: Hi! Okay this chapter is dedicated to jaejoong1, Emilia Salvatore Mikaelson, and the two guests from chapter 4, thank you, this is for you guys!**

**To eastern-tennis1621, I'd like to say that parts of a deleted scene actually ended up in this. Hopefully it turned out okay.**

**So here's to hoping this chapter is a good one. Don't be afraid to comment or review, I like hearing them and it actually gets me to update quicker. (Except mean comments, please keep those to yourself.) Anyway, tell me what you're thinking if you have any ideas.**

**Happy reading guys!**

**Chapter Five: Death**

The next morning I talked to Abby, and she invited Aaron, Alyssa, and I to stay with her. After Alyssa and Aaron got settled in, we went to my dad's to see if we could help Ben.

"Have you guys been at this all morning?" I asked as we went into the room they were in.

"Yeah, pretty much." Ben replied, and then said to Alyssa. "You must be Alyssa."

Alyssa smiled. "I am."

"Who's he?" Riley asked.

"Riley, Aaron, Aaron, Riley." I introduced them.

"So you're the-" I elbowed Aaron before he could say anything else.

'Ow' He mouthed to me. I gave him a pointed look. 'Fine.' He mouthed.

"It's nice to meet you, Riley." Aaron replied.

"Yeah." He replied shortly before going back to his laptop. He typed in another word and asked Ben, "So, how's he doing?"

"Uh…Keep working." Ben replied, going to leave the room. He tapped my shoulder to get my attention and nodded to the door. I followed him to where dad was.

"So, how is he?"

"Not good."

We went into the study.

"Nichols' bought into it, you see this." Dad told us.

"Dad, would you stop watching that?" Ben told him sitting down.

"It's not good for you to keep watching it." I chimed in.

"It's on the internet. No stopping it now." He replied defeated, "They have no understanding."

"You know the truth. That's all that matters." Ben told him, "You heard the story from Grandpa Charles."

"The story, this guy has got evidence. He has everything. We have a story, we have nothing." Dad replied.

"Our family stories seem to ring pretty true though. We found the treasure because of a story." I reminded him.

"Not this time Bianca, we have nothing behind it." Dad replied, "For one brief moment, the Gates family could hold its head up, now we're a bunch of crazies."

"But we're not liars." Ben retorted, "Look Wilkinson is saying Thomas Gates was a mastermind in one of the darkest hours in US History, and he burned the diary page to cover that up."

"Which doesn't really make sense to me…" I commented quietly.

Ben gave me a look, rolled his eyes, and continued, "And the three of us know, he burned the page to keep Booth's men from finding the treasure, and that's what we're gonna prove. There's only one way to prove it."

"You have to find the treasure." Dad said.

"You gotta find it, and you're gonna help us find it." Ben said, "So, c'mon let's hear the story again from Grandpa Charles."

"Grandpa heard his father say treasure map, and then there was a commotion." Dad started.

"Okay, I've got all that. Was there anything after that? Anything he said, something he did?" Ben interrupted, "Anything at all?"

"Wait a minute," Dad said thinking about it.

"What?" Ben asked.

"He took his son's hand." Dad took Ben's hand, "He looked him in the eye and said, with his dying breath, 'The Debt that all men pay.'"

"The debt that all men pay?" Ben asked

"The debt that Thomas paid"

"Death…" I realized thinking about it a little bit.

"Well that's five letters." Ben said getting up.

"Try death." Ben told Riley, putting him out of his misery of apparently listening to Aaron.

"What?" Riley asked.

"It's the key code. The debt that all men pay is death." Ben told him. The computer came up with a bunch of letters. Riley tried to sound it out.

I looked at the screen. "Laboule." I said amused.

"Laboule." Ben said agreeing. Dad said the same thing afterwards.

"Laboule!" Riley exclaimed, "What is that?"

"It's a who. Edward Laboule." Ben said, "Where's the phone?"

"I don't know, son." Dad replied, "I can't find anything in this mess."

"Here." I said giving him mine.

"Thank you." He replied, and then said to Dad as he scrolled through my contacts, "It's temporary till I find a new place."

"Speed dial number 4." I told him.

"Find the old one I like her."

Ben got on the phone with Abigail.

"We cracked the cipher. It's Lobule. The cipher spells Lobule...Or maybe there was a treasure map like Thomas gates said there was and Lobule had it. We only have part of the next word, lad..Lad, Ladder"

"Aladdin?" Riley suggested.

"Lady." I mumbled.

"Thank you, Abigail." Ben replied to her. "Lobule Lady."

"Didn't you guess that?" Aaron whispered to me. I nodded as I watched Ben walk out of the room.

"Your Ex is glaring at me." Aaron whispered.

"Not my problem, Alyssa's glaring at me, so we're even." I whispered.

"It should be you're problem, he was your fiancé…"He replied.

"She hung up." Ben said as he came back with my phone.

"But she took your call that was good." Dad remarked.

"Probably because it was my phone and she thought it was me calling her." I retorted sarcastically. "Can I have my phone back?" Ben gave me my phone.

"Are you saying there's a treasure map on the statue of liberty?" Riley asked.

"Lobule was a mason, they built clues into everything." Dad told him.

"Did you learn that from my book?" Riley asked. Dad didn't reply.

"So which statue are we going to?" Alyssa asked.

"Exactly...What huh?" Aaron looked confused.

"Is there more than one?" Riley asked.

"There are three. One in New York, one in Paris, and one in the Luxemburg Garden." Alyssa explained.

I smiled to myself "But he only referred to one as his lady. Pack your bags, gentlemen. We're going to Paris."

"What about you?" Aaron asked.

"I never unpacked, this only temporary."

Ben went upstairs to go pack, Aaron and Alyssa went off together and Dad went to bed, leaving me alone with Riley.

"You and Aaron are close?" Riley asked.

I looked at him, "We're partners. We worked on the same team for years. I guess you could call us friends." I said simply. I didn't know what else to say. I didn't really want to say much to Riley.

"Tell me something, would you hold a grudge like this against Aaron?" he asked.

"If he something as stupid as missing our wedding for a book, then yes," I said

"So you'd marry the guy?" he asked, surprised.

"What? No! I said something as stupid." I said. "Aaron and I are only partners. Nothing more."

"Partners like partners for life?"

"Partners, agents for the FBI, partners!" I said, a little too loud. In a quieter tone, I said, "So stop glaring at him."

Riley grinned, "So you noticed?"

"What? No, Aaron did. I didn't know notice until he pointed it out. You're making him quite uncomfortable."

"That's the point. Can't make a move when you know you're being watched."

"He's not gonna make a move! We're not like that! We've never been like that! I think I'd rather get shot at than have to marry Aaron. No, I would rather get shot at, there's really not much to think about there." I replied annoyed and made a mental note not to tell him about the case right after Lani died, where we had to go undercover as a married couple. After that case, there was no doubt in my mind that I would never be attracted to Aaron.

Riley just stared. "Wow, tell me how you really feel, Bianca," he said, sarcastically. "It sounds like you hate the guy."

"I don't hate him, most of time." I said, "Sometimes I do, but that's Aaron, he's that type of person. He knows how to make me angry and push your buttons, and he can do it easily. He finds it fun."

"Oh," Riley said lamely.

"Yeah," I said.

"Was there ever a spark?" he asked.

"No."

He nodded. "So if Aaron would ask you to marry him, you'd turn him down?"

"Yes."

"You wouldn't even give it a shot?"

I looked at him. "No, I marry for love."

"A guy willing to risk everything for you isn't enough? I mean, when you were undercover, you had to be willing to die for each other, right?" Riley asked.

I thought about it. "Yes, we were, but that's not the love I'm talking about. I want a guy who'll sweep me off my feet, not sit and talk handguns and case files all of the time with me."

"So even though he's constantly willing to risk his life for you, you won't marry him?" Riley asked. "Even though you two had years together, you'd refuse to marry him over one little thing?"

"That one little thing isn't so little." I said, "And I worked with Aaron for more than two years."

"What if he was willing to make it up to you?" he asked.

"How could he possibly make up for that?" I asked. I looked at Riley leaning against the table "We're talking about Aaron anymore." I said not answering his question and then add, crossing my arms, "We're talking about you." I smirked at the thought and shook my head. "Jealously doesn't suit you much, Riley...At least you're subtle about it."

"I'm not jealous. Why would I be jealous of him?"

"Because you think he has me," I said, "And that's what you want, me. You never got over me, did you?"

Riley smiled. "I don't think we're talking about me anymore, I think we've moved on to you now."

"Right, of course," I said, pretending to be unphased. But I knew Riley saw through me. That's something I liked about him. I never had to pretend around him, because I couldn't, and he accepted me as me through and through. "Admit you're jealous and I'll admit to not getting over you."

"I'm jealous, completely jealous. He has you; I don't really care what type of relationship it is. He's always by your side." Riley said without hesitating. I balked. I hadn't expected that. He raised his eyebrows. "Your turn."

"You should pack," I said, changing the subject. "We're leaving for Paris soon."

"Paris, very romantic," he said.

"Shut up, there is no romance between us. It's over. We're finding clues to find a treasure, and then I'm going to the FBI office to get myself stationed in Europe. It's just the treasure this time, no romance." I said.

"Isn't it a little funny how we fell in love during one of those treasure hunts, and now, here we are again? It's like a second chance," he said.

"Then it's a good thing I don't believe in second chances. Cause it would take a miracle." I started to walk out of the room. Riley stopped me.

"Do you believe in miracles?" he asked.

"I lost that belief a long time ago. I'd need proof. I believe in some, not much...I'd better go. I've got to go." I went out of the room and up near the back door. "Hey Aaron, wrap it up we gotta get back." I called to Aaron. He came out.

"Bi, we have time." Aaron came in.

"Not if we want to get on the first flight to Paris." I countered.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine let's go…Ever think of heels?" he asked looking at the height difference between us.

"I am wearing heels," I mumbled.

He laughed, "Don't feel bad, tall people get rained on first."

I smiled up at him. "I'm not short, I'm fun size."

He laughed again. "It's just like you to compare yourself to chocolate. And you're right, you're not short, just unusually not tall. I can say that with impunity because you can't reach the back of my head."

"No, I can't..." I said in false disappointment. "But I can do this." I backhanded him in the stomach.

"Ow."

"Next time I'll aim lower." I replied with a half-smile on my face.

"I love how you say that when Riley's in the room. Usually you're the good one, I'm the bad one." He commented dryly.

"That's because I'm the brains, and you're a halfwit. Better yet, you're Pinky, I'm Brain."

"Not funny." He retorted, "Why did I get stuck with the only girl field agent in our department?"

"Some would see that as a blessing."

"Not from where I stand. We're in trouble and going to this stupid meeting because you didn't want to go home!"

"I'm not the only one at fault here. You're the one who left in the first place. My assignment was to find you and drag your lazy butt back!"

"Ok," Riley said, coming up and put an arm each over both of them. "This has been fun, but don't you have to go pack?" The way he said it made it sound like we were going out on a date.

"Riley!" I said, but Aaron interrupted.

"No, no, he's right. No use arguing over distant past, even if we could both lose our jobs, which is odd because until recently I wasn't even with the FBI anymore" he said. "Either way, I say we enjoy packing for Paris thoroughly, who knows how many times we'll actually get to go back when it's not for work" He glanced at his watch. "We should get dinner before go back, really, more romantic." He grinned and walked out the door.

I rounded on Riley, "What was that?"

"You two were having a gross moment," he said.

"There are no moments between us! This is not a date! It's packing and maybe getting dinner with Alyssa before the flight. Aaron and I aren't like that. He's-" I yelled.

"He's not that bad." Alyssa said as she came back in. She turned her attention to me, "Aaron's told me a few stories about you too, Bianca."

"He would."

"He did. Now, we should go so we don't miss the last flight out." She gave me a reassuring smile.

"And I'll make sure not to flirt with Aaron." I teased her with a laugh.

"I hate it when you do that. We're just friends." She said referring to Aaron.

"You never know...Treasure hunting does that to people. Brings them together..." With that said I left.

Riley's POV:

"You never really got over her did you?" Alyssa asked after Bianca went through the door.

"Am I that obvious?" I asked. Alyssa laughed and nodded.

"Then why doesn't she see it?" I asked.

"Look," she said, and laid a hand on my shoulder. "She is stubborn, not to mention you did the emotional equivalent of ripping her heart out and stomping on it."

"It wasn't on purpose…"

"I didn't say I blame you and she's just as oblivious as you are." she replied. Her eyes widened, "I probably wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I can't say anymore," she said, turning away, but I grabbed her by her arm.

"Please tell me, I really want to know how to make it up to her."

"I'm not saying you can, Riley," she said in a sympathetic tone. "I mean, you two are oblivious to each other. She can't see your feelings, or her own. In my opinion, by what I see, she's still in love with you too. Or at least, she's not over you, but she'd never admit it. She may not even realize it herself. And you," she sighed. "You're oblivious to how much impact you have on her. Missing your wedding? I know you didn't mean to, but if you want her back, show her. No more taking her for granted."

"Can you answer a question though?"

"What?"

"Is there anything between her and Aaron?"

"I hope not."

"What do you-oh!" I said when I got it. "You and Aaron?" I asked.

"Tell anyone…" she started to threaten me, but I raised my hands.

"I get it. No one will know."

She nodded, "Thank you. Only you and Bianca know. She's a flirt...I got jealous, until I noticed how she was with the other guy agents. She thinks she'll get rid of her feelings by shameless flirting and refusing to date. She is odd...sweetheart though. They make a good team. She said that her other partners, before Aaron, was closer...I should have not told you that."

"Other partners...?"

"She didn't talk much about the woman, but the guy's name was John Raleigh..."

That name clicked. Everyone knew Agent Raleigh. His legend was long. Too long… Short black hair, brown eyes, tall, could get any woman he wanted. I didn't like the sound of that.

"Oh great," I said. "How can I compete with that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know much about him, but I do know she never waited at the altar for him."

That was true. She had for me and I ruined it. My book was not worth it. If only I could get her to believe that. "And now she'll never do that again. Not for me, anyway."

"You don't know that. Don't give up," she offered.

I just looked at her. "Would you forgive someone who stood you up at the altar?"

"Well, I probably wouldn't wait like she did. I'd probably call missing persons or something, come to think of it," she said.

"Why did she wait?"

"She's a hopeless romantic. It was the first thing she thought of. You know her better than I do. Why would she wait all night? ...Of course she told me more than waiting...She told me the full story...I think your missing a few parts..."

"Like what?" I asked, intrigued.

She hesitated. "I don't know if she wants me to tell you. I mean, she's been playing stoic this whole time, I doubt she wants me to ruin that image."

"But if it'll help me get her back..." I said, pleading.

"It might not," she warned me. "It might just make you feel worse, and her angrier if she knew you knew."

"I don't care. Please tell me." I pleaded.

"Are you sure?" Alyssa asked.

_I need to know._

"Yes."

"She waited till midnight, ok, then when she knew you wouldn't show, she cried" she told me flatly, "until morning, scared to death too, because there was a thunderstorm. Everyone else had left by then."

I had the most horrible image of my beautiful Bianca slumped against the altar in, no doubt, a gorgeous white wedding dress, crying black from her make up, her hair slightly falling out, the reverend patting her shoulder in a fruitless attempt to comfort her. But then I was instantly angry.

_Why didn't she just give up? _

_Why didn't she just go home like the rest of them? _

_Why did she have so much faith in me? _

_Why can't she see that I am just human and make mistakes just like everyone else? All be it horrible life ruining ones, but it was a mistake. _

_If she loved me so much, why didn't she forgive me already? _

"Excuse me while I go kill myself," I said to Alyssa.

She stepped in front of me, "You kill yourself, you'll kill her..."

_This woman apparently doesn't comprehend figurative language._

She continued, "You haven't read her book, have you?" I shook my head. She gave me the book. "You might want to. You're in it. As two characters...Funny thing about writing books, they show things that even we don't see at first. They're very perceptive." She left.

I opened the book and started to read.


	7. Chapter 6: Correlations

**AN: This chapter is dedicated to InnerCherry and Blood-of-the-guitarist. Thanks for following!**

**The beginning italicized stuff is the beginning of the book that Bianca wrote. It's the only part of the book you guys are actually going to see. The rules are actually not mine, they're from The Jane Austen Book of Good Manners (I think that's what it's called.) The story was based on Alice and Wonderland. Obviously for me, it's still counted as fan-fiction because I don't own the rights to Alice in Wonderland. I don't own the National Treasure movies either. **

**I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, we'll be back in movie verse next chapter.**

**Happy Reading!**

**Chapter Six: Correlations**

**_According to Alice_**

**_Chapter One: Rules We Must Not Break _**

_ I believe in the impossible. Most days I can think of six impossible things before breakfast. In a society where everyone must be proper and obtain the correct social standing, being different is highly looked down upon. My name is name is Alice, Alice King, and I must say I am not like other girls. _

_ There are many rules; everyone must follow in society, if you wanted to be considered something. _

**_Rule Number One: _**

**_You must not be presumptuous when offering introductions. _**

_ Someone should have reminded Shane O'Riley that before he introduced himself to Lord Aniston, of Devonshire. Mr. O'Riley was a hatter. He was socially exiled afterwards. Most thought he was mad for stepping over the boundaries of his rank. _

_ You see, I do not quite understand why that happened to him. All he wanted was more business so he could pay his dues. Mother says I should not worry about him; I would never be in his place, unless I married beneath me. But why should I not think about it? It wasn't right what happened to him and it shouldn't have happened, if anyone would have any decency in this proper, prim and prissy country, it wouldn't have. _

**_Rule Number Two:_**

**_Respect a lady's reputation._**

_ Yes, this is a lovely rule, but the men are hypocritical. They will respect a lady's while they are courting and are engaged, but once they are married, all there is, is the respect, nothing else. I've seen that in most marriages around me. _

_ I'm not sure why it doesn't work out it. It might be because there arranged. But I'm not sure, some work and others don't. For example, Christy Barrie was your average woman. She was beautiful with flaming locks of dark auburn hair that resembled more of a scarlet. Her husband was an officer in the royal armed forces. He left her a scorned woman with a son and daughter, twins with auburn hair. He left her for an Irish maiden with long golden blonde hair. _

**_Rule Number Three:_**

**_Don't attempt to bring friends of different ranks together._**

_ I've never seen this rule ever broken. I might have broken it a few times. I converse with Mr. O'Riley, when I see him, before Mother steers me away from him, scolding me like she would a child. It is not my fault I enjoy his company and pleasant conversation. The townspeople are correct, he is half mad, maybe completely bonkers, but all the best people are. _

**_Rule Number Four: _**

**_ Recognize the 'Distinction of Rank'._**

_ Ha! That's all people care about in this backwards society. That rule needs to be broken. It's terrible. It creates unbearable egos. I knew a man, James Snipes; he had an ego so huge it drove him to misery. He is now married to Christie Barrie, in a one-sided love marriage, and it's not on his side. _

**_Rule Number Five: _**

**_Become familiar with styles and titles._**

_ Girls learn this rule when their small and it gets stricter as they grow. They have to know these things; it's the only thing we're allowed to converse about. Heaven forbid we talk about something intriguing for once! No, no, that would be too much for us. We're too delicate for business and culture and politics and the things men have the privilege to speak of. _

**_Rule Number Six: _**

**_Always show restraint upon meeting and greeting._**

_ These days, if we had anymore restraint, the men would be ten feet away from us and instead of them kissing our hands, they'd give a nod and their mothers would be curtseying with us. _

**_Rule Number Seven:_**

**_Take care in the correct use of names._**

_ This rule I get. It's maybe one of the only ones, but it is an endearment of respect. It is very hard to argue about that. _

**_Rule Number Eight:_**

**_A lady may not call upon a gentleman._**

_ Why not? That makes no sense, it's not fair. What if the men are shy? That does happen. I call upon Mr. O'Riley all the time he does not mind one bit. I think he likes it. I tried debating Mother on this, she would not hear of it. She replied, if I wanted to keep my social graces and the family's honor, I mustn't see him. For my family's honor, I have conceded to her obscene rule. _

**_Rule Number Nine: _**

**_Be sure to leave cards._**

_ Calling cards. Mother used to pass them out to every aristocratic male available; and has tried to set me up many times. For some reason, they never work out. I would say it was my fault, but do you not have to feel guilt, to be faulted in that respect? I think so. I do not feel guilt for sending them away, so I am not at fault. I'm working on her latest one now, Victor Snipes. Isn't that a horrid name? It sounds positively dreadful. He will not budge either. I've tried everything. What I got was a short lecture and let not mention this or do it in public view again. _

**_Rule Number Ten: _**

**_Learn not to only dance, but dance well and learn the etiquette of dancing and invitations._**

_ Dancing has its own set of rules, and they are brilliant. You may not dance with a man without a formal introduction. After refusing to dance with one gentleman, you cannot accept another's invitation. A lady may not invite a gentleman to dance. Observe the rules of precedence. Make conversation while you dance. _

_ Unless I'm forced, I do not dance. It's not that I can not. I do not find it to be a favorable pastime while rules are barricading it. Most polite conversation does not inspire me to concede a verbal frenzy, so my conversation is blunt and bland. My imagination is not quite right for polite societal conversation, and so I have nothing to speak of. Weather becomes a bit boring after you speak of it for too long. _

**_Chapter Two: Alice_**

_ I stared out the window of the carriage, gazing at each tree pass with my river blue eyes, as my mind flew off into the great unknown, back to the time where grandmother's stories were alive once again. Stories of queens, rabbits in waist coats, juices that cause you to shrink, cakes that make you grow, talking animals, jabberwockies, and a place called Wonderland. _

_ My grandmother taught me many things. She taught me to think of six impossible things before breakfast. When I visited her, I told her all of the impossible things I could remember that I thought of upon visiting her. She was enthused by my imagination and encouraged my imagination and sense of self. She said to me once,_

_"Alice, I'm afraid you've gone mad."_

_ I was six at the time. I had finished telling her of the dream. I have had this dream, it never changes. As I grew, it grew in detail. But at that time, I had pieces strung out. Grandmother Alice calling me bonkers did not help. _

_"Am I bonkers?" I asked her perplexed. _

_"Yes, I'm afraid you're completely off your rocker." She replied. My face fell and I looked down. She lifted my chin to look up at her and she said, "But I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are."_

_ Grandmother Alice was the only one who understood other than father. As winter lead it into spring, it left taking both with them; which left me all alone with Mother. It's not that Mother is terrible, it's just that she does not get my way of thinking and she tries to press the rules of society upon me. _

_ As I watched the trees pass by I thought more of her tales of Wonderland. They were more exciting than the fairy-tale from the Brothers Grimm. Often I found myself dreaming of being inside of her stories. Wondering, what it was like to be in Wonderland and what falling through a rabbit hole was like. It must have been exhilarating. I'm not so sure falling down the rabbit hole was as exhilarating as being in Wonderland and fighting jabberwockies. _

_"Alice…Alice!" Mother called pulling me away from my daze. _

_ My head snapped away from the window. I looked at her with a blank visage. "Yes Mother?" _

_"Good gracious, Alice. I've been calling your name for several minutes now. Straighten up, Alice. We don't want your dress to be wrinkled, and have you not be presentable before we arrive." She scolded. _

_"Yes Mother." I replied blandly. I straightened up in my seat and brushed off the bottom of my dress. "What would you like, Mother?" _

_ Whenever we were we were riding somewhere, the travel was quiet. We had nothing to converse about, so we never do. If she has something important, or if I'm doing something wrong, then she will talk. More often than not, she speaks when she feels I need to be chided. _

_"Please remember to on your best behavior when we're there, Alice. I do not need any spectacles from you. And be polite to Victor Snipes. He is going to become prominently important in your life and I'm not going to have you messing it up. He is your last chance. I'm not going to have you end up like your Aunt Evangeline. And you do not want to end up like her. But with your off the wall, out of bounds, imagination, you could be. Speaking of that imagination of yours, you shall bite your tongue if those crazy figments of yours come to your attention. I shall not have you chasing him away. He's-"_

_ I cut her off. She had given me this lecture before we left the house. _

_"I know, Mother. I shall do as I am told." I replied lightly. _

_ The carriage slowly pulled up in front of estate. There was only thing I liked about the Snipes. Their estate. It was beautiful, especially in spring time, right before Easter. The grass was the most pleasant shade of green. No not green…It's more like the color of a green apple or a pear but darker. Or better yet, the color of Irish clovers in full bloom in the beginning of March. The mansion was elegant and made of marble and stone. It wasn't a prince's castle in a far away land, but it was close. It was the perfect place to live. It was one of those houses that if you open a book and it had an aristocrat in it, this is where they would live. _

_ One of the servants opened the carriage door. He helped Mother out first and then came back and to help me out of the carriage. As I stepped out of the carriage, Mother noticed something I hoped she wouldn't. I wasn't wearing stockings. Grandmother used to say she didn't wear stockings sometimes; I wanted to try it for myself. And there was no other dress to try it with then my pale crystal water blue one and with my white boots. _

_"Alice King!" Mother shrieked in a whisper of disapproval. _

_"I know Mother. I won't do it again, Mother." _

_ We went ahead to the lawn at the back of the mansion to join the other guests. Everyone was in milky white. I was the only one in blue. There were a couple in yellows and pinks, but they were so light it matched with the milky dresses. _

_"Behave yourself, Alice, or you won't be going into town any time soon." _

_ With that she left. I wouldn't be able to go into town anytime soon anyway, if this goes on with Mr. Snipes any further. Victor Snipes is seven years my senior. He had orange hair; it was like he shaved carrots and pasted them together to make a wig to put on his head. His eyes were a vile shade of green; it looked more like a mold color, it almost matched his jealousy. He was the most jealous, paranoid, clueless man, I had ever met. He was the worst man I had ever met; if he could even be called a man. His mother controlled all of his actions. He would do nothing without his mother's permission. And he's twenty six. _

_ He didn't think much of me other than money. I once asked him, "What do you see in me?" _

_ I did not understand him or his actions when he was with me. I never had. _

_"Mentally, there isn't much to you. You're not the sharpest person, I've ever met. You're useless and stick out from the others. You can't do anything right by yourself, my Alice. You need someone to guide you, you're handsome enough, and I see you for that. What else is there for you?"_

_ Not quite the response most would like to hear. I had heard worse as time went on. Which leads me to Shane O'Riley; he was a brunette. He had short decadent chocolate brown hair with eyes as blue as the sky or the ocean, and as fathomless as both. He was the person I could converse with all day and he would never say things like that. He compliments me on those things. His nose was not enormous like Victor's was, or had his face pinched in the same clueless expression as Victor's. His laugh was sincere, instead of Victor's one of mockery. Two opposites; and I was stuck with the worse of the two. _

_ I shook my blonde head and took a small breath as I watched Victor heading my way with his mother. He had the same clueless countenance as he made his way to me. If Darwin is right in his evolution theory, it is obvious he has not met Victor. _

_ When Victor came up to me, he roughly took my arm. I cordially nodded to his mother; she returned the nod out of politeness. He dragged me away to dance. We joined in the waltz. _

_"How was your trip, Alice?" He asked out of politeness. He did not care what I had to say, I could hear it in his voice, anyone could._

_"Beautiful, the carriage was pleasant; I would have rather walked and took my time to enjoy the countryside though. More time to let my mind wander." I replied trying to put some emotion in my voice, nevertheless, it was impossible when speaking to him. _

_ He looked at me perplexed. "Alice, you think of the silliest things why would you trifle yourself with those sorts of things. Honestly, Alice, why do you bother yourself with thinking?"_

_"I, actually, quite enjoy letting my imagination wander." I replied flatly. _

_"You let your imagination wander off too far, you'll end up mad as the hatter."_

_ His words disgusted me. "Shane O'Riley is not mad; even if he was he'd still be twice the man you are."_

_ His forehead and eyebrows creased together as he bit his lip. He let out a deep breath before replying. "I see you've been speaking with him again. Your mother and I told you to never to converse with him again."_

_"When I see Shane, I converse with him. I quite enjoy speaking with him. And you are not in charge of me; you cannot make up my mind. I am not your property." I argued. _

_"If you speak any louder, my Alice, the whole party will hear." He retorted in a whisper. _

_"Fine, I'll be quiet, Victor, but I am not your Alice."_

_ The song ended, we separated. _

_"Not yet, my dearest Alice; not yet…You will meet me by the foot bridge after Mother speaks with you." _

_ He left me standing there. I walked over to the so I was not in anyone's way. I sat down next to Leona and Michaela Havishem, identical twins with hair like harvested hay as summer lightly brushes over into autumn. Their eyes were a deep pecan color with flecks of shaved pistachio. They shifted their position to face me. _

_"May I help you?" I asked them uninterested as I watched the next dance starting. _

_"Oh please, Alice" Leona started. _

_"Don't act like you don't know." Michaela finished the sentence and then started the next, "Of course she'd know by now."_

_"How could she not?" Leona asked her twin. _

_ They did this all the time. It was very hard for them not to do. They best thing was to listen to them go back and forth, till you've learned the information they were supposedly telling you. It was like a guessing game. _

_"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise…"Michaela started._

_ I hate to be surprised. Let me rephrase that I hate surprises that have to do with Victor._

_"That I suppose could be a reason to not know." Leona agreed and then argued. "But wouldn't a person know if they were getting betrothed?"_

_"Excuse me?" I asked them for clarification. _

_ They looked at me and then looked at each other and then something caught their attention behind me. Someone cleared their throat politely before they could explain what was going on. "If you shall be so kind, Alice, if you will permit an old mother a walk around the garden. It will not take long, just a short walk. We have some things to discuss of your very near future."_

_ It was Victor's mother. I have had two greetings with Mrs. Christy Snipes. The first time I met her, I was sixteen. I was in the hat shop talking to Shane. We were speaking of the Great Expedition. It's now known as the World's Fair. Shane had taken me to it without Mother's permission. I thought once was not going to hurt. _

_ Shane smiled. "I'm happy you had an amazing time, Miss King. I had a pleasant time as well." _

_ I smiled and shook my head. "Shane, how many times must I tell you to call me Alice?"_

_"At least once more Miss King, if you don't mind. It's not quite proper for me to call you buy your given name." He responded cordially._

_"Of course, Mr. O'Riley, I apologize for being so bold. I was not aware that we could not call each other by our given names. I was wrong." I was sincere, a little crushed, but I would not show that. I did not like the rules of society, but I would never break this one. I think it might be a girl thing. _

_"You will never change, Miss King." He gave me a half a smile, "I'll be right back, don't move, I have something for you."_

_ He always was full of surprises. His were the good kind though. He had a good heart, still does. He's a good man. "For me? A hat?"_

_ He chuckled. "What else can I do?"_

_ I smiled. I liked his laugh. There were no beautiful phrases or words that equate to the sound of his laugh. "You make lovely jewelry." I replied lifting the heart-shaped locket pendant on a simple silver chain. _

_ He shook his head with a smile. "It is a hobby. I cannot quite make a career out of it. Your locket was my best work. Jewelry takes a very long time and it is in demand. I do believe it will drive me mad."_

_ I laughed and replied jokingly, "Are you not mad now?"_

_ He laughed; he knew the rumors surrounding him. "I might be, Miss King. What is your opinion?"_

_ I smiled, thought of my grandmother for a second, and then looked at him directly in the eye and replied softly. "Shane O'Riley, I've afraid you've gone completely bonkers in one way or another, but I'll tell you a secret, after you show me the surprise." I smiled. I had not forgotten. But he had for a moment. He could easily forget things, when caught up in something else. _

_"I shall be right back, Miss King." He got up quickly and headed to another room._

The sound of arguing pulled my attention away from the book; I looked behind me at Bianca and Aaron. They were arguing. They had been telling stories for the beginning half of the plane ride, and know their arguing was so bad Ben and Alyssa were actually watching them go back and forth as if they were deadlocked in a tennis match trying to get a point against one another to win. Right now, I think all of us were kind of glad Aaron called a friend of his from the FBI who was a pilot. We were the only ones on the small jet.

_What could those two be arguing about this time?_

**Bianca's POV:**

"I have not been that bad of a partner. I've saved your life several times. You're still here because of me." He said smugly.

I looked at him dead panned.

"Yeah, let's go through those a bit." I replied, "The first time you saved my life, when Lani was still part of the team, you pushed me in a lake!"

"Should I have rather let you get shot?" Aaron retorted.

"I had it handled."

"Sure you did…"

"The second time you 'saved' me, you lit me on fire."

Aaron balked, pointing at me, "That was an accident and you know it."

"The third time you saved me, I wouldn't have need to be saved if you had just followed the plan."

"That plan was flawed."

"That plan was brilliant, you just didn't understand it."

"It wasn't a finished plan, how could I not understand a plan that wasn't finished?" Aaron retorted.

"It was finished; you just didn't have the last half."

"And whose fault was that?"

"When you saved me before you quit, you almost killed me."

"I saved your life. You were about to be sawed in half."

I looked at him as if he had gone mad, "You didn't save me. You dropped a building on me."

"Almost dropped a building on you act-"

"You missed by a half an inch. A half an inch! If I hadn't moved in time I would have been hit full on."

"You're alive though…" He replied sheepishly.

"If I could have, I would have shot you for that."

"You made a promise to Sadusky after were put together that you wouldn't shoot me." He reminded.

"No, the promise was I couldn't kill you and I didn't. I behaved very well and kept my promise."

"That promise doesn't apply anymore?" Alyssa asked looking between the two of us amused.

"Nah, I started to grow on her after a while."

"I got used to him after a while, and the promise stopped applying. We weren't friends when were put together, but we did have qualities and skills that the other didn't. For example, I'm actually more cautious than he is."

"I'm impetuous." Aaron smirked proudly.

"Yes, you are an idiot. I'm glad you agree."

"Ha ha." Aaron replied sarcastically.

**Ben's POV**

"Are you they always like this?" Alyssa asked.

"Yes, they are." I replied, with a laugh, "They used to be worse."

"How could they be worse? They bicker like an old married couple ."

"Believe me they could."

"And plus if we were an old married couple, the wife would have iced tea and snicker doodles." Aaron commented.

"No, I wouldn't. I prefer hot tea and I'm not really a fan of snicker doodles. So, hypothetically, I wouldn't have iced tea and snicker doodles."

"'Hypothetically', a good wife would have gone to the store."

"I 'hypothetically' would want a divorce."

"When you 'hypothetically' go to see the lawyer, you could pick up tea and cookies." They both laughed.

"Now I could see how they were worse." Alyssa replied going up to join Riley.

**Riley's POV**

_'I hate him.' _I thought listening to half of the conversation and then going back to the book. Alyssa was right. There were correlations. I could definitely tell who I was in the story and roughly who she was.

"Hey, you're still reading the book?"

"Yeah, you were right, there are correlations." I replied, closing the book again.

"It might help you though." She replied, and then shrugged, "Who knows maybe you can learn something from it."

"I think I am learning from it. I'm starting to get a few ideas."

"That's good." She replied, and then changed the subject, "There is nothing between them. You know that, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, it's hard to believe it, but yeah."

"Find a way to ask her out."

"She said it take a miracle for me to get another chance."

"What did you used to do to get her to forgive you when you made her angry before this? Surely this isn't the first time she's been upset with you."

"It's not, but this is a little different, don't you think?"

"Whatever you used to do is worth a try though, don't you think?"


	8. Chapter 7: Paris Holds the Key

**AN: Shorter chapter, sorry but there is a little bit of movie back into the story. For some reason I feel like this story is going to be longer than the other one. Who knows not me. But they're in Paris now, so yay! Anyone been to Paris? I have, it's really cool. I've been to their next destination too, but I say a tiny bit more about that in the next chapter. **

**I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. I'm starting to put Riley and Bianca back together. I've got something really big planned for the next chapter. On that note, I thank eastern-tennis1621 for the help with the idea. **

**Happy reading everyone!**

**Chapter Seven: Paris Holds the Key**

**Bianca's POV**

We arrived in Paris at a quarter to four their time.

"So what are we doing? Getting a hotel and waiting till tomorrow or are we going to the statue now?"

"It's been a long flight, we'll go tomorrow morning." Ben replied.

"I'll right, I'll make a couple of calls and see if we can get place to stay for the night." I got my phone out of my purse and went to go sit and make a call to Hotel le Petit Paris, where Aaron and I had been staying for the past few weeks before we returned. I try to stay there every time I get to go to Paris.

After a while of talking to them, I managed to get us three rooms, the last rooms they had left. Not the best for five people but we'll make do for the night. I went back over to them.

"I have some good news and some bad news." I told them, "The good news is we have somewhere to stay tonight. The bad news is Riley or Ben isn't going to get a bed. The rooms we have are two classics and a suite."

"What about him?" Riley asked about Aaron.

"He and Alyssa get the double. I get one of the singles. Fight over the last one last one boys while we go to the hotel."

We headed to the hotel.

**Ben's POV**

"You take the other single. If you don't mind-" Riley started. We were far enough back from the rest for them not to really hear us.

"I don't care. I'll take the other single." I replied. "Good luck. You're gonna need it."

"Thanks." He replied as we reached the hotel.

Bianca signed us in because she was the only one who could speak fluent French. I could speak French but I would not call myself fluent.

Bianca came back, gave Aaron a room key, and then said to Riley and I, "So who's got the other single?"

"I do. Riley's bunking with you." I told her.

"What?" She replied as I took one of the keys. I ignored her and went to my room.

**Bianca's POV**

"You wanna go take a look at the room?" Riley asked almost shyly.

I sighed, "Yeah let's go."

"Where's the room?"

"It's upstairs." I replied. We went up to our room.

The room was beautiful and indescribable. The color was mostly blue, it was small and simple and elegant. And if I was being honest, it was a very romantic room and I loved it.

We set down our stuff and started to think about this situation we were in. I thought it would be better to have the situation more comfortable for both of us.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him.

"Starving." He replied with a slight smile.

"It's just dinner, not date, so don't get excited. I'm still upset with you."

"I understand." He replied, "But please understand, I'm not going to stop trying. I know everything that happened now, and I am sorry. I do regret what happened, and I have since the day you left. I don't care if it's not a date, I'm happy with just dinner because I just want to be with you."

I looked down slightly blushing at his words, "I can't and I won't promise anything."

"I know. Just dinner. I just thought you should know how I feel about this and about us."

I nodded, not quite knowing what to say. _What do you say to that?_ It's sweet and romantic in a way; I honestly didn't know quite what to say, or quite how I felt about it. I wasn't shocked to hear him say his honest opinion, but I was surprised at how honest he was.

The dinner went well, I guess. We didn't really say that much while we were at the bistro. The whole time I'd been thinking about the apology too. It was honest, he wasn't making excuses for what happened, just a straight I'm sorry and what he planned to do about it. I respect him for that. I'm impressed. It seems I always am with him. Tonight though, he is sleeping on the floor.

The next morning Riley, Ben, and I headed to see 'Laboule's lady', while Aaron and Alyssa took care of the rooms.

"This is like impossible what you're doing." Ben commented as we watched Riley fly a remote control helicopter up to the statue.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." Riley replied.

"Laboule had to leave a clue somewhere on here."

"There's probably an inscription or something on the torch or the tablet." I guessed.

"Good point." Ben agreed, and then said to Riley, "Move in on the torch."

As Riley was getting the torch, two police officers rode up on their bikes.

"Excusez-moi, Monsieur." The police officer called Ben over.

Ben went to go check it out. "Excuse me officer, may I help you?"

After a couple of minutes, Riley got the picture of the torch and we ran over to Ben.

"I got it, I hope you read French." Riley told him.

Before I could say that I could read it, the cop asked, "May I?"

"Tres joli." Ben replied, handing it to him. Riley reminded Ben that the man was a cop.

_He just said very pretty…I might want to fix that._

"Merci beaucoup monsieur, désolé pour mon frère de son français est un peu rouillé. Je crois qu'il voulait dire quelque chose autour des lignes de «avec plaisir»."

"Vous parlez français?" He asked impressed.

I smiled, "Je parle un peu, je suppose."

"Il semble très agréable."

"Merci, Je crains que mon alphabétisation française est un peu hors cependant, pourriez-vous traduire cela pour moi?"

"Avec plaisir." He replied and started to read in English, "Um…Across the sea, these twins stand, um…determined?"

"Resolute." His partner corrected.

"Resolute to preserve what we are looking for…Uh…Laboule, 1876…" He finished.

"It's a clue." Riley said to us.

"These twins stand resolute. Let's see, resolute twins…" Ben started to think about it out loud. "HMS Resolute." He finally said, "A British ship that got lost in the arctic in the 1800's. It was salvaged by American whalers then congress sent it back to England. When the ship was finally retired, Queen Victoria had two desks made from its timbers. Voila, resolute twins."

"And where are those desks now?" The officer who translated asked.

"Uh, the closest one is in London." Ben replied, and then asked Riley, "Riley, how fast can we get to Buckingham Palace?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask your new best friend?" Riley replied.

"We could take the Eurostar?" I suggested.

Ben nodded. "Alright. I'll go call Aaron, and tell him where we're headed."

"Here use my phone, speed dial 7." I told him handing him my phone.

"Nice helicopter, is that yours?" The police officer asked.

"Yes, actually it is." Riley replied looking down at it.

"Okay. So you get the ticket." He replied.

Riley laughed sarcastically, and then said, "Great."

_'He doesn't need any more debt than he already has.'_ I thought rolling my eyes slightly, and then said to the officer, "Monsieur, l'hélicoptère appartient en réalité à moi. Il l'a construit. C'est pour le travail. Ce matin, c'était le seul moment où je pouvais les rencontrer était ce matin avant que je devais partir pour une enquête que je travaillais sur le dos dans le pays. Un des indices nous amènent ici. Je suis désolée pour le bruit."

"Puis-je voir votre insigne?" He asked.

"Oui." I replied showing him my badge. The officer plucked the ticket out of Riley's hands and ripped it in half.

"Vous remercions de votre compréhension." I replied.

The officer nodded. Riley and I left to find the others.

"What did you say to him?"

"Nothing really, I just said the first thing I thought of to get you out of the ticket."

"Why?" He asked.

I shrugged, "You're already in debt; you don't need anything else added to the list of things you have to pay for."

"Thank you…" He replied, "So, you speak French."

"A little bit…"

"It sounded very nice."

"Thank you…"

The rest of the walk to the others was silent, but this time it was actually a good silent, a comfortable one.


	9. Chapter 8: London Calling

**AN: I don't own National Treasure. **

**Well they're in London, England now, my favorite city. I visited for a couple of weeks a few years back. It is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to, and I've traveled a lot. **

**I warn you guys now, I tweaked the London scene from the movie, you'll see how. One of the things that was tweaked was inspired by 'When Harry Met Sally...', which is a fantastic movie with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. **

**I hope you enjoy the chapter. **

**Happy reading everyone!**

**Chapter Eight: London Calling**

We got to London two and a half hours later. We sent Aaron and Alyssa back to the states because it would be easier and cheaper to get through Buckingham Palace if it was just the three of us. We got two hotel rooms for the night. We were currently in Ben's room planning out what we were going to do tomorrow morning.

"So the Queen's office is here." Riley said, pulling up the map. "The elevator shaft gets you close. The only direct access is through security."

"Well that should be exciting." Ben replied sarcastically.

"Who knows getting thrown in there could be fun." I replied.

"How would that be fun?" Ben asked.

"Making a scene." I replied simply.

"It doesn't matter how, we do it." Riley said, "I've you in that room."

Ben's phone rang, he picked it up. "Hi dad… Call the police, I'm coming home."

"What happened?" Riley asked quietly.

"Is he okay?" I asked at the same time.

"…Okay. We're in London. We're going to Buckingham Palace. We have an appointment with the curator tomorrow afternoon…Bye." He hung up. "Someone else is after the treasure."

"That isn't a surprise." I replied.

"Of course someone else is after the treasure. It's the axiom of treasure hunting." Riley agreed.

"Bianca, when do you have to go back to work?" Ben asked, "Your training might be more useful this time."

"I'm on vacation. I don't have to go back until the week after Easter. I have three planned vacations a year; this treasure hunt just seemed to fall on one of them. So, I'm all your guys' this time without the risk of losing my job."

"Good." Ben replied, and then said to Riley, "We have to hurry and see that desk."

"We don't wanna miss that appointment." Riley replied.

The next afternoon, we went to Buckingham palace. As soon as we got in, Riley separated from Ben and I, and went to set up everything on his laptop and phone. Ben and I planned to cause a scene. I don't know what we'd actually fight about though. We hadn't planned that out yet.

"Okay it's tea time, champs." I heard Riley say as I put the communicating device in my ear.

_'This ear piece is smaller than the one I had last time.'_ I thought.

Then I saw my saving grace from having to think of an argument: Abby. She went up to see Ben. I inconspicuously watched the scene unfold.

"Ben!" She greeted him.

"Abigail." Ben and Riley said shocked.

"I am very happy right now." I said ecstatically.

"That's because it might save you from coming up with something." Riley replied.

"There's no might about it." I replied.

"What's she doing here?" Riley asked Ben.

"What are you doing here?" Ben asked Abigail.

"Your dad called me." She replied.

"Go dad." I said quietly while looking at a painting.

"Said your next clue was here." She told Ben.

"She's really there?" Riley asked.

"Yes." I replied. Ben looked back at me for a hint at what to do. I just smiled and shrugged. I didn't really want help. I wanted to see what would happen.

"Drop her. Lose her." Riley told him.

"Ben, I wanna help." She told him.

"It's very nice, but it's kind of a bad time right now." He replied.

_Idiot._

"A bad time? Right now?" She retorted annoyed.

He nodded, "It's a bad time."

"Okay, I just flew all the way to London to offer my help and now you say-"

"Remember the plan." Riley told him.

"There's a better one right in front of us and I think he should take it." I replied.

"Of course you do, you think it'd be funny." Riley retorted.

"You're the one who's making a scene right now." Ben told her.

"I- I'm not making a scene right now." She retorted.

"We wanna make a scene." Riley told him.

"Do the plan, but with her. It'll cause a bigger commotion." I chimed in.

"We'll then FINE!" He yelled, "If that's what you want then let's have it out right now."

I chuckled softly, '_This is gonna be good._'

"Ah so subtle." Riley commented.

"It's perfect, Ben. Keep going with that." I said with a slight laugh.

"Let me guess, it's the wrong time! It's the wrong place! I'm wrong again!" He yelled, and then yelled in a kind of poor British accent, as he, I think he was marching down the stairs. "Wrong about us! Wrong about Thomas Gates! Wrong you'd like the Queen Anne's chair!"

"You're wrong to assume I'd like the chair." She yelled back.

"You see everybody," He called in his normal tone of voice to some tourists getting their attention, "Listen to this, this is more interesting than that. She thinks that even when I'm right I'm wrong." He said hugging some old lady.

"That's because you are wrong." I commented.

"How is he wrong?" Riley asked.

"When you assume things in a relationship, you are automatically wrong because you don't have the other person's input." I replied.

"Isn't that right, Abigail?" Ben asked her, "Just because I answer a question quickly doesn't make it wrong."

She went down to him, "Not if the right answer is something we have to figure out as a couple. That's what couples do, Ben."

"Well spoken, Abby." I commented.

"Sir, you and your Mrs. take it outside." The security guard told him.

"Oh, now look you've done, you've brought the little bobbies down on us." He said mockingly, "You take the Mrs. outside. I'm staying right here." He told the officer and slid down the banister, only to be stopped by another cop.

"Good afternoon sir." The cop said to him.

"Ello." Ben replied, regaining the poor accent.

"Been drinking have we?" The cop asked.

"Just a nip, just popped down to the pub for a pint, bit of…alright…Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whiskey?"

"Sir that's enough."

"Bangers and mash" After that he started to say a lot of British words I didn't recognize. "Hagis!"

"That's Scottish, Ben and I don't quite think the Englishmen like being referenced to Scotsman. I could be wrong though." I told him.

"That's it! Dismount the banister." The cop said pulling him off.

As the cop dragged him off to security, he was singing 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts', with Abby yelling and running after them.

"Thank you, Ben, now I want to watch The Lion King." I commented.

"That was brilliant." Riley commented.

"It was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long time." I agreed, and then said to Riley, "Are you almost done?"

"Yeah, I just got to get them out of security on my computer and then I have the rest set up on my phone." He replied.

Abby and Ben fought all the way until they got into the cell. The cop locked them in and left.

"Riley, get us out of here." Ben told him finally. I turned off my ear piece after I heard that to give them privacy and went down the stairs to a more open location to meet Riley. He came out about ten minutes later with his phone in hand.

"So, they there?" I asked him.

"Yeah, they're figuring out how to open it." He replied.

"What could be so hard about opening a desk?" I asked.

"You don't have your device on, do you?" He answered my question with a question.

"No."

"The builder built Chinese puzzle boxes and used that technique to build this desk. They just need a bit more time to figure it out."

"Okay, so what are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing." He replied.

"Wha-" I started to ask.

"They'll figure it out and I've got my phone programmed just in case." He retorted, and then said, "Look I've been doing a lot of thinking and the thing is I love you. I know you love me, but I don't see why you're being stubborn about it. I made a mistake, why can't you just forgive me? You know I'm sorry and that I'm in love with you. What more do you need?"

"How do you expect me to respond to this?" I asked him a little confused and a tiny bit annoyed.

"How about you forgive me and you love me too?" Riley suggested.

"How about I'm leaving? I'm gonna go wait outside till you guys are done. You don't need me in here." I retorted.

As I started to leave as people started to look, Riley asked following me, "Doesn't anything I've said mean anything to you?"

"I'm sorry, Riley, I know you're lonely. I know you regret what happened, but you just can't apologize and tell me you love me, and think that's going to make everything alright. It doesn't work this way."

"Well how does it work?" He retorted.

"I don't know, but not this way!" I retorted. By now everyone was staring.

"How about this way: I love that you get cold when it's 70 degrees out. I love that it takes you almost three hours to get ready in the morning when you don't need to. I love that in the morning you hit the snooze button every five minutes for a half an hour because you don't want to wake up in the morning. I love that you hate coffee and think the only way you really fully wake up in the morning is after you've had your morning tea, which is ridiculous, but it's adorable. I love that you think music, chocolate, and tea will solve almost any emotional problem. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you I can still smell your vanilla perfume on my clothes, and I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to bed at night and the first person I want to talk to when I get up in the morning. And it's not because I'm lonely or regret what happened. I'm saying this because when you know you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want to start the rest life to start as soon as possible."

By now I had caught on to what he was to doing. I was already tearing up though. He made it synonymous to me, instead of using the lines Harry had said to Sally for our recreation of the scene for a distraction.

_Might as well quote the movie, probably the last time my life is going to mirror one of my favorite romantic comedies. At least I feel what I'm quoting. _

"You see, that is just like you, Riley. You say things like that and make it impossible for me to hate you!" I cried, "And I hate you, Riley. I really hate you."

He saw through it and gave me a small smile.

"I love you." I finally admitted quietly. He kissed me passionately.

He pulled away lightly smiling. "I love you too." He replied gently, and then his phone started beeping. He looked down at the footage he had on his phone. "Time to make some noise." He played with his phone a bit and put it back in his pocket. A few seconds later the alarm started to go off. "Uh-oh, God save the Queen." He murmured.

"Time to go?"

"Time to go." He replied, we headed out, and were soon joined by Ben and Abigail.

As we headed down the street, Riley got caught up in a group of dogs. "Okay um…bit allergic…" I shook my head and gently grabbed Riley's hand and lead him around the dogs trying to quickly catch up with Abigail and Ben.

"We went to Buckingham palace and all you got was a piece of wood?" Riley asked them.

I looked at Ben, he was looking back at where we came from, "What's up?"

"I think we're going to need your skills soon than expected." He replied. I looked to where he was looking at. Wilkinson was here.

"Wilkinson." Ben told Riley and Abigail, and we ran for it. "He's that one who's after the treasure. Bianca, we're going to need those skills of yours now."

"I'll drive." Riley said as he got into the car to find there was no steering wheel where he was sitting.

"We're in England." Ben said as he and Abigail got in the back. I got into the driver's seat and started the car. I looked at the screen and looked behind me. Before I could say anything Ben warned them about the gun. "Bianca, gun it. You guys keep your heads down." He ordered. I put the car in reverse, gunned it almost hitting Wilkinson and his men, turning it quickly in time to just miss them. I drove all the way down in the street in reverse before I turned the car around and put it in drive. I stopped in front of the group of dogs we saw earlier. Once the last dog was out of the way, I sharply turned the corner.

"They're getting closer!" Abby yelled.

"I'm working on it. This car only goes so fast." I replied.

"What is their problem?" Riley asked. We didn't answer him. We didn't really know, or at least I didn't.

"Go left, go left." Abby yelled at me.

"You might wanna hang on." I told them as I sharply made the turn without reducing my speed at all. I speed up so we we're boxed in my Wilkinson and his buddies.

"Turn, turn, turn!" Riley yelled as we came upon a double-decker bus, I turned in time to miss one of them, but spun and side swiped another. We all got out okay though. I kept driving down the street increasing my speed with every second. Ben would tell us when we need to duck. Wilkinson ended up shooting a truck holding beer kegs and all of the kegs started tumbling out some even exploded. I drove in front of the truck swerved and stopped for a moment, and then gunned it all the way down the street.

A phone started to ring.

"What is that? Someone's phone?" Rile asked.

"It's him." Abigail said handing it to Ben.

"You have his number on your speed dial?" Riley questioned.

"Mitch, this has gotta end before someone gets hurt…Tell that to my father…"

I drove down a different street. This one was full of people.

_Opps, wrong road. Too late now._

"Why are they standing in the middle of the street?"

"It's either Portobello Road or a market, I'm think it's the first." I answered.

"Where are all these people going?" Ben asked.

Riley asked the better question, "Why is everybody running?"

Abigail looked behind us, "They're right there!"

I looked down at the screen for the rear view cam, and then asked a sort of silent question, "Ben?"

"No. I know what you're planning, no." He replied.

"It's either get killed by them or having the possibility of being severely injured by my driving skills."

"I vote the second one." Riley commented.

"I'd rather not die today." Abigail agreed.

"You've done this before?"

"Yeah" I replied and then added mentally, _It's just been a few years._

I spun the car and drove through the alley the car was facing and kept going through every alleyway I could. Eventually, we came across a red light with a camera.

"Okay, give me the plank." Ben said to Abigail. She handed it to him.

"Bianca, move out of the driver's seat."

"Are you crazy?! We're in a moving car."

"That's why we do it quickly." Ben answered, and sort of pushed me in the direction of Riley. I quickly got out of the seat so he could get in it. I was kinda stuck in Riley's lap as Ben accelerated the gas. "Hold on. We're gonna run a red light. I held on to Riley, he had one arm on me and the other on the door. Ben sped up and went through the light almost crashing into people as he did.

"Hack into the police data base and get a copy from that traffic cam." Ben told him.

"Okey dokey." Riley retorted sarcastically.

"Can't do it?" Ben asked.

"No, I can do it. I just don't like that you assume that I can do it." Riley replied.

"Why thank you Riley." Abby said looking at Ben.

"Bianca, do you have any comments?" Ben asked a little peeved.

I thought about it, "Used to the assumptions, although the assumption that I could do a high-speed car chase was an interesting one."

"How longs it been?"

"Few years. I do mostly detective work I don't really have to fiddle with chasing them down." I replied.

He looked really peeved now as he drove down the bridge. Half way down the bridge, he toss the wooden plaque into the water.

We got on a flight back home that night. Ben and Abby were seated next to each other, both already asleep, and Riley and I were seated next to each other.

"So, did you mean everything you said earlier?" I asked, about his speech. I know it was to make a scene, but what he said sounded more personal.

"Every word." He replied, "Did you mean everything you said?"

"Even though I was predominantly quoting a move, yes." I answered, "The snooze button, really?"

"Yeah." He replied simply.


	10. Chapter 9: Mothers and Meetings

**AN: Hey, sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been really busy with classes. I had three exams this week. Not fun. I do know I passed one of them so yay me. **

**This chapter is only in movie verse for the first part of it and then I go and break off from the movie a bit. This chapter actually ties into an idea I had for a third story. Do you guys want a story after this or should I just leave it at two?**

**Aaron and Alyssa will be back in the next chapter. I know I haven't had them in a chapter since when they were in France. I've kinda been neglecting them a bit, so yeah, they'll be back. **

**Hey, if you have any ideas or things you would like to see in the story, any comments you would like to say, or just say hi, review or message me. I always love reading them and sometimes you get to hear what I'm thinking when I'm doing the chapters. **

**As always I hope you enjoy the chapter. **

**I'm sorry this is late. I think my reason is viable. **

**Happy reading...**

**Chapter Nine: Mothers and Meetings**

"Abigail." Dad greeted Abby happily as we came up to the house.

"Patrick." She greeted, kissing his cheek.

"Nice to see you two together again." Dad commented.

"Yeah…well…we're not." Abby said.

"Oh, I was hoping to get some of these boxes out of the house." Dad replied.

I looked back at Riley having trouble with his stuff. "Would you like some help now?" I asked him, he said no the first time I had asked.

"I've got it." He replied.

I rolled my eyes, "You lift, I'll pull."

"Why can't I pull?" He asked.

"You're taller and have more muscle mass. It would be more logical for you to lift."

"When did you turn into a green-blooded hobgoblin?"

"Very funny, now go around, and pick it up so we can get this in." I replied. Together as a team, we got his stuff into the house.

Once we got in and pulled out Riley's computer, we showed Dad the picture of the plaque.

"I can't read the whole thing, but I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial native American markings." Dad said.

"Easily 500 years old." Ben said.

"Easily." Dad agreed and zoomed in on the picture, "I can identify one symbol." Dad said pointing at it, "Look at this, do you know what that is?"

"Sacred calendrical? I don't know." Ben replied, looked to me if I knew what it was. I shrugged.

"That symbol is Cibola." Dad told us.

"The City of Gold."

"Like El Dorado city of gold?" I asked.

Ben rolled his eyes.

"What?" I asked.

He just shook his head, and started getting out the history books.

"In 1527, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Esteban, who saved the local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city, the city built from solid gold. Later when Esteban tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the new world in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Bighorn, it became clear no one would ever find it." Ben closed the book he was reading from.

"Ben, can you imagine if the confederates got their hands on the City of Gold?"

"I'm not Ben, but my guess is it would have altered history." I replied.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Ben announced, "You're coming with me."

"We'll time for me to go." I commented, trying to get out of the room before Ben said anything.

"You're coming too, Bianca."

"No." Dad told him.

"Not happening." I told him at the same time.

Ben stopped us, "Hey, no one else can translate it."

"There are others there are several others." Dad told him.

"There might be someone who I work with who can read it." I suggested.

"For ancient Native American?" Ben questioned, "There's no one better."

"Look Ben, I can't go with you. It's been what 25 years?"

"32." Ben replied.

"She left in '84; so actually, it's only been around 28 years, but who's counting." I replied.

"That long?" He asked, "There's a reason we haven't spoken in 28 years. We have nothing in common."

"Me? Bianca? Tess?" Ben asked.

"Oh, yes of course, and I'm sure she's just as proud of you three as I am." He replied.

"Who?" Riley asked.

"Their mom." Abby answered.

A couple of hours later, we were in Maryland. This time we drove.

"Will you relax? It's gonna be fine." Ben told us.

"Yeah, that's what you say now." I replied sarcastically.

"Sure, should look at the bright side, it's been a long time, maybe she's lost her memory and won't recognize me." Dad replied to Ben as well.

"I hate her!" A student yelled as she came out of mother's office.

"We're in the right place." Dad said.

"She hasn't lost her touch either, I see." I commented.

"I'm gonna take myself out of the line of fire for this one guys." Riley said backing up.

"Yeah, I think I'll do the same." Backing up as well.

"C'mon Bianca." Ben said.

"Fine." I replied.

Ben, Abby and I walked in fist. Dad trailed in behind me. Riley decided to stay outside.

"Ben, Abigail, hello sweetheart." She greeted them, hugging them and kissing them. "Bianca" She hugged me, "What did you do to your beautiful hair?"

"Hello to you too, mother." I replied.

"It got cut on one of those cases, didn't it? I've always said you should have done something else with your life other than risk it every day looking for murders."

"I like what I do, I'm good at it, and it saves people's lives. I don't care about the personal risks."

"The people who care for you do." She replied, and then she saw dad, "Oh."

"You see, one syllable: a knife in the heart."

"Oh no, no…" Ben tried to interject.

"She can do that." Dad continued.

"Yes, and I can also track the whereabouts of my tooth-brush." She retorted.

"I was not the one who left the tooth brushes in Marrakesh. I stowed them both in the travel case as you instructed." He replied.

"Yes, and you also insisted on unloading the luggage into the taxi."

"This is gonna be a long visit. I'm gonna go get something to eat and get out of the line of fire. I've done a few things she hasn't been very pleased with over the past couple of years." I whispered to Ben as they continued to argue.

"Fine. I'll call you when I've got it." Ben whispered back, "You gonna visit with John? He's here in town for the weekend."

"Yeah, I'll take Riley and we'll see if he's busy while we're waiting."

I stepped out of the room as they continued to argue about luggage.

I called John. He picked up, "Haven't heard from you in a while, kid."

"Yeah, Heard you were in Maryland."

"Yeah, I am. Called in for a homicide."

"You got a little time? I'm in Maryland."

"You wanna get a bite?"

"Yeah."

"I can meet you."

"There's a deli near the University." I suggested, "Saw it on the way up."

"I think I know where you're talking about, I'll meet you there." He replied, "Do you mind if I bring a case file with me? I need a second opinion."

"Nah that's cool." I replied to him as I went over to Riley. "See ya John."

"See ya kid." He replied and hung up.

"Who's John?"

"Friend of mine. You hungry?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Awesome. There's someone I want you to meet." I replied.

"John?" He guessed as we walked out of the university. "Like John Raleigh, John?"

"So you've heard of him."

"It's kind of hard not to due to his reputation."

"Aaron told you?" I asked.

"Alyssa." He replied.

"Okay, we're close." I admitted; that part was true. We were close. "Not the close that-"

"Aaron thought?" He guessed.

"Exactly."

"Then what is he?" Riley asked.

"Family."

"What?" He asked as we came upon the deli.

"John's my brother-in-law. He's married to Tess. They've been married since I was like 10."

"That would make him-"

"He's 42, my sister's 40. They've been married for about 20 years."

"That would make his reputation?"

"A lie." John said as he came over to us.

"Good to see you, John."

"Good to see you too." He replied, opening the door to the deli. "You're Riley, right?"

"Yeah."

"Read your book. It was interesting."

"You read my book?"

"It was about government conspiracy theories, you don't think they have agents look at those types of books?"

"You're not an agent anymore, John." I reminded him.

"No, but I am a detective."

The hostess sat us down at a table in the back.

"Yes, and you're a detective with case files for me to see."

"A case file"

"It's still a file I haven't worked on a homicide in weeks. This is a homicide right?"

"It's always work with you." He shook his head, handing me the case file. Riley and John talked while I looked at the file.

A waitress came took our order and left. I looked at the different pictures of the case file. "I have an idea of who you're looking for, but this guy's supposed to be in prison with the rest of the guys he works with."

"Who has been committing these murders?"

"How long's it been since the last one?"

"Couple of weeks." He answered. The waitress came with our food and left.

I nodded showing him the pictures, "Okay, your victims were murdered by different men working for the same boss. Their boss was arrested a couple of years ago, but we've been getting some information that he doesn't plan on staying too long. Our source is in protection now. I was working on another case during the boss' arrest so I don't know if all of his men were there. Riley was though."

"What? Who?"

"Ian, I know he was arrested, but were McGregor and Victor there?"

"I don't know. I saw Phil, Shippen, and Ian. I didn't see Victor and McGregor. You would have to ask Ben." Riley replied, and then looked at the pictures closer, "Did they do all of this?"

"Shaw did the first few, they last couple are them." I replied.

"How do you know that?" Riley asked.

"I know them." I replied.

"I'll get the file to Sadusky, just in case." John said.

My phone rang, I picked it up without checking the Caller ID, "Gates."

"Bianca, we've got it. Time to go." Ben told me, cutting to the chase.

"Alright. Be right there." I replied and hung up.

"Time to go?" Riley asked.

"Yeah." I answered.

"I've got the check. And don't ask if I'm sure, just go before they start to wonder where you are." He replied.

"Thank you." I replied, "It was nice seeing you."

"Nice meeting you, John." Riley said.

"It was good to see you too, Bianca." He replied, "Nice meeting you, Riley."

We left the deli to go meet back up with Ben, Dad, and Abby.

"Your source is Alyssa, isn't it? That's why she's been staying with Abigail and is always with Aaron." Riley said, figuring it out as we headed back.

"Alyssa is our source, yes. That's all I can tell you though, Riley." I responded.

"You know I can figure out how she is connected to Ian on my own, it would save me the time if you told me." He said simply.

"Why is it so important how she's related to Ian?"

"Did you see how he was around you?"

"Of course I did, even a blind man could have noticed it. The man is not the most subtle person in the world." I replied, and then sigh, "Fine. This is not leaving this conversation though and it stays between us."

"Got it."

"She is his sister. I can't tell you what she told the FBI that's classified and only on printed file because we don't want him to know we know. We want him to stay where he is and in the same state of mine that he has. He is what we'd like to call a consulting criminal-"

"Like Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes?"

"Yeah, let's go with that, and he has men who can hack and destroy our databases very quickly. We can't stop it if something does happen. Those pictures from the case, they're a sign saying we missed something."

"So what do we do?"

"There's nothing we can do, but wait and see what happens next." I replied right before we met back up with Abby, Ben, and Dad.


	11. Chapter 10: Finding a Way in

**AN: Hi everyone! **

**To everyone who is reading this story who is from America, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I personally had a fantastic Thanksgiving. To those who are reading from other countries, I hope you all had a great two weeks.**

**Thank you to Kimberly37, dahorserida, Lulu-fifi, and He4artBreaker101. This chapter is for you.**

**So we're at Chapter Ten, not bad for only been writing this for only been writing the story for 26 days? My goal is to have this story finished by around Christmas, do you all think I can do it? Well, I'm going to try. **

**Aaron is in this chapter as promised. I might be skipping over the Easter Egg roll, I don't know yet. **

**Happy Reading!**

**Chapter Ten: Finding a Way in**

"So what's the plaque say?" I asked them.

"We only have half of the map." Ben replied, "But at least we know where the rest of the map is."

"That is true." I replied, "We're going to have a little trouble getting it though."

"What? You know where it is?" Dad asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because obviously you have a tendency to overreact!" Ben retorted.

"Something you obviously inherited, Ben." I chided.

He looked at me a little irked, "And you didn't?"

"No, I never overreact. My reactions to things are logical."

"Let just say we all three overreact a bit. Bianca, you may not overreact the same as we do, but it is still there. Just in a different way." Dad spoke up. "I'm sorry."

"So am I." Ben replied.

"Me too." I replied.

"The inscription said these twins stand resolute." Ben told Dad.

"We think the map divided between the two resolute desks." Abigail said.

"The resolute desk…The resolute desk?" He asked realizing it. We nodded. "The president's desk?"

"The president…What president?" Riley asked, "Our president?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Unfortunately yes." Abigail replied at the same time.

"But that means…So we have to….The white house?" Riley said as he put the pieces together.

"This is going to be fun." I commented sarcastically.

"The oval office to be exact." Ben said.

"Why would I overreact to that?" Dad asked.

We went back to Dad's house to figure out how we were going to do this.

"The resolute desk is over by the south wall in the oval office." Dad said coming in with a book after we got everything set up. "Look at this." He said setting the book down.

"The small door on the front of the desk." Ben pointed out. He and dad started talking about that.

"Riley, scroll back down a bit. I think I saw a way to get us in." I told him. He scrolled back down to it.

"It's the Easter Egg Roll, what about it? We don't have any kids. It would look silly if were there." He replied.

"I know someone who might be willing to let us babysit his daughter for a day. If he does, one of us can take her and let her do the events while they find the other piece." I replied.

"That's brilliant."

"It was bound to happen eventually." I replied.

"Guys take a look at this." Riley said to them and told them my plan.

"This could work."

"Why Abigail, I do believe it's time for you to make a date with your new boyfriend." Ben said to her.

"I think you're right." Abby agreed.

"Bianca, can you call your friend?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, or Abby can ask him when she sees him…Aaron and Alyssa are still staying with you right?"

"Yeah, but what does this have to do with them?" She asked.

"Aaron has a daughter who's five and I think she would love to go to this." I replied, "It's been awhile since Sophie got to do anything really fun."

Riley bought the tickets and I ended up calling Aaron.

"Hey it's been awhile since I've talked to you." Aaron answered.

"Yeah, it has. So, it's almost Easter…Does Sophie's school let out for that weekend?"

"Yeah, I get her for a couple of weeks. We're really looking forward to it."

"Do you think I could steal her away for part of the day?"

"Why?" He asked a little annoyed.

"Abigail has tickets to the Easter Egg roll. I can't go, I thought she could go in my place."

"Who's going to be watching Sophie?"

"Ben and Abby. She won't be left alone, she'll have a bit of fun with some kids her age and Ben and Abby will be watching her the whole time."

"Fine, but I want in." He replied.

"We don't have a ticket for you." I replied not really getting it.

"I want to help find the treasure. I know that's why you're going."

"You have to stay with Alyssa."

"She can come too."

"Think of the benefits of having to agents-"

"Think of the problems." I countered.

"Sadusky asked me to watch both of you. I've been letting it slide till now because you were with them, but I don't want anything to happen to you this time."

"You argue this with Ben, not me." I replied.

"I will."

**AN2: Review!**

**I think I've said this several times, but I'll say it again. I like it when people review, usually it puts me in a great mood and makes me want to write more for you guys. Disclaimer: Negative reviews have been known to make me stop writing for a while. I've only gotten one negative review on a story ever. I don't like them, but who really does? What happened to 'If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all'? I'm sorry rant... I do that a lot as you have all noticed. **

**But really, do comment and review, or private message. If you guys have any ideas of anything you want to see in the story please tell me about it. **


	12. Chapter 11: Time

**AN: Hello everyone! I'm back. I just got a new computer. I want to say thank you to everyone who has stayed with me on this story. I wasn't sure how long, it would be till I got a new computer and was writing again. **

**This chapter is dedicated to MewMewLollipop, Silver Eyed Slayer, ElevensWife, xCrazyxBandxNerdx, Ch3rryies, KatnissEverWeasley, and Shadow. **

**I hope everyone likes it, we should be in movie verse next chapter. I wanted to do a little fluff chapter to celebrate being back.**

**Happy reading everyone.**

**Chapter Eleven: Time**

Sophie was brought by at quarter to ten, and she, Ben and Abigail left to go to the Easter Egg Roll, leaving Riley, Dad, Aaron, Alyssa, and I to our own devices. Dad went over what we've discovered so far with Aaron and Alyssa, and told them stories about the last treasure hunt. Riley and I, however, used the time off of the search to move my stuff back in to our apartment. We had just finished.

"I think we need to buy a house. We'd have more room to fit things and to have more things in a house." I stated looking around the apartment, as Riley finished with the last box.

"Since this is an apartment, obviously would most likely have more room if we bought a house." Riley replied.

"Smart ass." I commented on his remark.

"The apartment will have to do for now because we can't afford a house."

"I can." I replied.

"Yes, but then it wouldn't be ours it would be yours. We agreed the next place we get, whether it be a house or another apartment, we're buying it together. And I saw that house you've been looking at, the one modeled after the Haunted Mansion, which is in Georgia, might I remind you. Do you really want to move all the way to Duluth, Georgia, just to live in a house that looks like a ride from one of the Disney parks?"

"It's only a couple of states down. Do you want to live in Virginia for the rest of your life?"

"No, but I'm not going to move all the way down to Georgia for a house. There should be other reasoning behind it."

"What if we find a contractor willing to build a house modeled after the ride?"

"Then that's gonna cost more than the actual house, we might as well find a way to move to the actual theme park."

'You'd live in Disney?"

"Depends on which theme park. I wouldn't want to be in Disneyworld during hurricane season."

I laughed, "No, that wouldn't be the smartest thing to do."

"Neither is moving down to Georgia for a house or getting a contractor to build one like the ride when we don't have the funds." He replied.

"Ben said last time that the next time we find treasure you get to determine the percentage we get. If we find it, we could cover your debt, get the Ferrari back, and get a contractor to build us a house. If we find the treasure, we will have the funds from the percent we get from the treasure, plus my salary, plus the money from both of our books to pay for all of it."

"I'm six million dollars in debt." Riley replied.

"And I have five million to spare from the last treasure in the bank that hasn't been touched."

"You haven't used it for anything? Why?"

"My salary pays well and I haven't needed it for anything."

"What about the wed-"

"I vote we elope the next go around."

"You want to elope?"

"Yeah, we could get married without the hassle; invite a couple of people for witnesses. We could go to New York City, or Florida, or Hawaii, or New England and stay at bed and breakfast, or the Caribbean-"

"I get it; there are a lot of places to elope. Are you sure eloping is what you want?"

"I just want to marry you, Riley. I don't care how it is done. I'd marry you tomorrow if it meant I got to spend to the rest of my life with you."

He smiled, "That can be arranged, you know."

I smiled and shook my head, "If we elope, we'll do it right and go somewhere romantic." I kissed him lightly.

"Then after we find the treasure, we'll get a license, then we'll elope." He replied, "We're do you wanna go?"

"I don't know, do you want to stay in the states or go internationally?"

"I don't care, we can decide a little later. We have time." He replied kissing me.

"That is true; we do have a lot of time." I replied lightly before we kissed again. My arms snaked up his chest and around his neck, and his slid around my waist. We had time until we were needed by the rest of the group, a lot of it.


	13. Chapter 12: The Eagle and Scroll

**AN: Hi everyone, I know I've updated once already today, but I'm trying to make up a little for the time I lost and I have spare time on my hands. **

**I want to ask a question about the last chapter, has anyone seen the house that is modeled after The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland? If you haven't look it up, it's really cool.**

**I'm back in movie verse as I promised. **

**I hope you all enjoy reading it.**

**Chapter Twelve: The Eagle and the Scroll**

Later in the afternoon we met Ben in front of the White House.

"It's empty." Ben said as he and Abby came over to us.

"Someone must have taken it." Abby commented.

"Brightest men in our country sat at that desk for over a hundred years," Dad commented.

"Take a look at this." Ben said as he pulled out his camera.

"Couse one of them found the map." Dad finished his comment as Ben pulled up the picture.

"There's a symbol stamped into the wood." Ben stated.

"The presidential seal." Dad said.

"It's not the presidential seal; see the eagle is holding a scroll instead of olive branches."

"You're right, it's not the president's official seal, it is one of his seals though." I replied, looking a poor Riley who knew exactly what it was.

"Did none of you read my book?" Riley asked.

"I read it, Ri." I replied.

"You also knew about everything in the book before I wrote it." Riley replied.

"That's true." I agreed.

"The eagle clutching the scroll" Riley started to tell them.

"Do you know what it means?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, but it's not something I can tell you. It's something I have to show you in my book." Riley replied with a smile.

We went back to the car and Ben opened the package containing Riley's book.

"You didn't even open it?" Riley asked him incredulously.

"I was moving." Ben stated.

"I was on assignments in Europe and still had time to read it. The moving argument isn't a solid one, Ben." I retorted.

Riley sighed, and told Ben the chapter, not really feeling like listening to us bicker. "Chapter thirteen."

"The President's Secret Book?" Ben questioned.

"The President's Secret Book, it happens to be a collection of documents for presidents, by presidents, and for presidents' eyes only. And I'm not just talking JFK here guys, the eighteen and a half missing minutes of the Watergate tapes… Did the Apollo really land on the moon? Did it? **_Did it?_**"

I looked at him, "You know I can't tell you that." I joked.

"And the coup de gra, Area 51."

"Oh c'mon Riley, that's an urban legend." Abigail scoffed.

"Is it, Abigail? **_Is it?_**" Riley questioned.

"It's just totally-"

"Crazy?" Riley finished her sentence.

"Yeah." Abby said.

"Hm, cause last time I checked we pretty much make our live on crazy." Riley replied.

"He's got a point." Ben stated as he and I looked through the book. He looked at me as they continued to talk about it a bit more. Abby wasn't going concede. "So is he right?" Ben asked me quietly.

"Yes, he is, about all of it. They all exist. I've seen a few of them." I replied in hushed tone. Ben wasn't going to tell anyone. I looked to Abigail getting tired of their verbal tennis match. "Abby, it's worth a try." I told her.

"I guess so." She conceded.

"Same symbol." Dad commented looking at the page.

"It was release in '66 under the Freedom of Information Act…he eagle and the scroll…the secret symbol in the president's book." Riley explained.

"So you're saying whatever was on that plank is now in the president's secret book?" Dad questioned.

"Ben, if it was you trying to convince me, you'd have less evidence, and I'd already believe you by now." Riley told him.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Abby asked.

"Bi, we could set something up with Sadusky. He could talk to Ben…"Aaron offered an idea.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I agreed and looked to Ben, "What do you think?"

Ben nodded. "Call him."

I took out my phone and called Sadusky.


	14. Chapter 13 Part One: An Idea

**AN: Yay another chapter, well kind of it's only a part of a chapter, but it's better than nothing. **

**Part Two will be out soon.**

**Enjoy everyone. **

**Chapter Thirteen Part One: An Idea**

"All I need is a few minutes with him." Ben said trying to convince us of his half-baked plan.

"A few minutes, really?" I commented.  
"Ben, even if you were married to the president, you wouldn't get a few minutes with him." Riley said.

"Even his own kids probably don't get a few minutes with him." I added.

"Not when he's surrounded by his handler, but if I get him alone-" Ben said.

"How do you expect the president alone?" Riley asked.

"Before the civil war, things were all separate. People used to say United States are, it wasn't until the war ended people started saying United States is. Under Lincoln, it became one nation."

"And Lincoln paid for it with his life." Dad stated.

"So did Thomas Gates." Ben added.

"Right." Dad said.

"With his life." Ben said.

"So, how am I gonna get him alone?" Ben asked, "I'm gonna kidnap him. I'm gonna kidnap the President of the United States."

We all stared at him not knowing what to say to that insane remark. Abigail tried to laugh it off, saying that it wasn't funny.

_'Oh dear, it like stealing the declaration all over again.'_ I thought and then said, "Ben, we can't kidnap the president, that's insane."

"I'm your father, how do you think I'm supposed to respond to this-" Dad started.

Riley, Abby, and Dad started talking all at the same time.

I thought about the idea more as all three of them talked at him. I took a deep breath and said, "Alright, we all get that this is insane. Kidnaping the President, like stealing the Declaration of Independence, is committable, but if we really want to clear Thomas Gates name, it's a necessity. If we do this the right way and make it look kosher, we could almost get away with it."

"You agree we should do this?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, and I have an idea. I don't know where to do it though." I replied.

"You might have the same idea, I do." Ben replied.

"Exactly how do you plan on doing this?" Dad asked us.

"I was thinking Mount Vernon." Ben said.

"Oh that could work…" I replied thinking about it.

"What?" Abby asked.

"I'm in." Riley agreed.

"So Bianca, how are we going to get them to move it to Mount Vernon?" Ben asked.

I smirked.

**AN2: Thinking about Lincoln, has anyone seen that movie? I saw it a few days ago. It was really long, really well done, and really great actors. It was fantastic. **


	15. Chapter 13 Part Two: Everyday Superhero

**AN: Okay here's the second part of Chapter Thirteen. Next Chapter will be the birthday party. But that won't come out till next week. I'm busy tomorrow and Monday. I just uploaded four chapters tonight. I think that's pretty good for own night, don't you think?**

**I hope you all enjoy the second part of the chapter. **

**Happy reading everyone!**

**Chapter Thirteen Part Two: Everyday Superhero**

After going over the plan, each one of us got a phone, went to an area, and started calling. We worked until Mount Vernon was the only place available.

"So, now that we have them at Mount Vernon, how are we getting in?" Riley asked.

"Well, I have an idea for that as well." I replied. They all looked to me. "Aaron and I have invitations to go to the party with plus ones. We should be getting a call about the changed place later."

"How did you two procure an invitation to the President's Birthday?" Abby asked.

"Old assignment." I shrugged.

"Always the modest one." Aaron replied.

"What? There really isn't more to the story than that."

"There isn't more to the story?" Aaron questioned, "Of course there is, it was one of the most heroic things I've ever seen you do."

"I was doing my job. There isn't any more to it than that." I replied, "May I continue with what I saying?"

"I wanna hear what you did." Abby said. Alyssa, Dad, and Ben agreed. Riley didn't say anything, he already knew.

I sighed, "It wasn't anything extraordinary. I was on an assignment that involved the president that was too high level to involve the Secret Service. The government assigned, well it was a little more like drafted to be honest, anyway they assigned agent to transport the president. The area we were in was unsafe. I got shot in the lower stomach and my left knee, and broke a wrist, an elbow, and an ankle, and cracked my skull open. I was in the hospital for a while." I explained nonchalantly, and shrugged. "I was just doing my job. I'm not a hero. I was just doing as I was assigned. For some reason, he's never forgotten it." I finished explaining and before they could say anything, I changed the subject, "So I was thinking since Aaron never goes, Ben goes in his place with Abigail. Riley and I will go. Ben, you can decide the rest of the stations, I just thought that would be the best way to go about the invitations." I said and then asked Dad, "Dad, do you still keep tea in the kitchen cabinet above the sink?"

"Yes, I don't know if I any honey for it though. You were never one for adding things to your tea though…"

"That's fine…Thank you." I replied going to the kitchen. Not really noticing until I got into the kitchen that Riley was right behind me.

"That was definitely not the most pleasant case you've ever been on." Riley stated.  
"No. Physically, it was one of the worst. Psychologically, this past one was one was worse." I replied, getting a mug from one of the top cabinets

"Yeah, I've noticed the nightmares. If you wanna talk about it, you know I'm here."

"I don't want to talk about it. I just want to forget it."

"You know you're not going to, especially with whatever is underneath the bandages. What is written on your arms? I tried to find out on my own, there wasn't anything about the case in the files."

"It was a paper file only case, it wasn't supposed to be on a computer file until it was taken care of." I replied, "Carved into the right arm is the word heart, and carved into the left is the word Trouble. The doctors said when they take out the stitches and it's healed, if I wanted to take care of the scaring, we could."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"It wasn't important."


	16. Chapter 14: The Library

**AN: Hi everyone! **

**I have some good news, this chapter is longer than the past recent ones, or at least I think it is. This chapter was like twelve pages in word, which is a pretty good number of pages I think, not to long and not to short. The longest chapter I think I've written for a story was for a story a friend of mine agreed to co-write and put up, the chapter ended up being thirty-five pages and it was the very last chapter, but it was fun. The shortest chapter I think I've ever written was the first chapter of Beauty and the Techie, it's only 54 words, but it's a pretty good start to the story.**

**Another thing I would like to say about this chapter is that it kinda of shows my love for three things. Whenever I watch Book of Secrets and it comes to the President's Birthday scene, I always think of two things. My first thought during that scene around the lines of I love Randy Travis. The second thought started after I saw Star Trek, and that thought is basically Admiral Pike is President...cool. The third thing is a thought when I saw the Library of congress scene, what cover ups could there be out there? I put one guess out there. You'll see what it is.**

**Hope you all enjoy the chapter.**

**Happy Reading.**

**Chapter Fourteen: The Library**

Riley, Ben, Abby, and I got in our best and went to Mount Vernon with the plan in mind. Riley, Abby, and I would cover for Ben as he took the president.

"And let me say what an honor it is to be here at this and Happy Birthday Mr. President." Randy Travis said before he started to sing.

"That's Randy Travis…" I said in awe.

"I know. You've said that five times already, Bianca." Abigail replied.

"Oh leave her be. It's not every day you get to see someone like that." Riley told her.

Ben said something next, I wasn't really paying too much attention to them. Randy Travis was on stage.

When Randy Travis stopped singing, I turned back to them and noticed Ben and Abby had left. "Where'd Ben and Abby go?"

"Ben decided to put the plan into action. Abigail is getting the car ready. We have to go."

"But Randy Travis isn't onstage any more. I could meet Randy Travis."

"Should I be worried that meeting the President is more exciting to you than meeting Randy Travis?"  
"I've met the President. I haven't met Randy Travis, so it would be logical for me to be more excited for me to meet him than the President."

"Look, after we find the treasure, you can meet any country singer you want. Just right now we have to go." Riley replied.

"Even Reba?"

"If we find this treasure, and do everything we need to do, she'll be the first one you meet." He replied, "Now can we go?"

I conceded and we left to join Abby.

"What took you guys so long?" She asked when we got there.

"Does it matter? We're here now aren't we?" Riley replied.

I got in the car; Riley got in after me, and shut the door. Abigail handed us clothing to change into and got out. We quickly changed into our normal clothes. Riley had a t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, a jacket and a pair of jeans, and converses. I had a pair of jeans, a lavender long-sleeve shirt, a flannel shirt, my blue tennis shoes, and my Marmot ski jacket.

"Are we going somewhere cold after this?" I said, eyeing my Marmot.

Riley shrugged and looked back at me, as he put on his jacket, "I don't know if we're going anywhere. Ben might not be able to get the president to tell him."

"Well I guess here's hoping." I said as I put on the jacket. I opened the door for Abby and then went to join Riley in the front.

A half an hour later, Ben called Riley and gave us our next destination: The Library of Congress.

On the way there I got a call from Sadusky.

"Um, I think Sadusky knows what we did." I told Riley and Abby as we drove to the Library of Congress.

"Don't answer it." Riley said starting to panic a little.

"I know. We should keep on our toes though. We now have the government chasing after us too." I replied.

"This is going to be exactly like last time." Riley sighed.

"I don't know, I don't think Wilkinson is as fully threatening in person as Ian was." I replied.

"We don't know that for sure." Abby interjected.

"Maybe, maybe not." I replied as we pulled up to the library and parked.

We met Ben on the stairs heading in.

"Hey, we're close." Ben said as we went inside.

"Where do we start?" Riley asked quietly.

"XY is the book classification code." Abby said looking around the library as she walked.

"Stands for special collections, which mean very, very special books, where are they?" Ben asked.  
"Probably in a restricted section or special access section, something like that..." I replied.

"This way." Abby said turning, "We'll have to sneak in."

We followed her as she sort of led the way to the section of the library. When we got to the door to the section, we each one by one snuck through the door, Ben went first, then Abby, then Riley, and then me. We followed Abby up the stairs and to a door with a key pad on it. It had the President's secret seal on it.

"3,7,9,4" Ben said as he punched in the code.

"I wonder if that's a birthdate or something." I said thinking about the numbers.

"What?" Riley asked at my random remark.

"3, 7, 9,4. It would be like a date. March 7 of '94. Maybe something special happened on that date."

"It doesn't matter, we don't have the time." Ben said as he opened the door.

We all went inside and Ben closed the door behind us.

"What did the President say the number was?"

"234786" Ben replied.

We each started looking for the book.

"Here." Ben said calling us over. He had found the shelf. He and Abigail looked on each end for the book. "It's not there."

"Maybe someone checked it out." Riley said. I laughed.

Ben took one of the middle books down.

"Why would he send us here if there's no book?" Abby asked.

"He probably wanted us to get caught."

"Yeah, but the book being here in plain sight, if it was even here, wouldn't make sense anyway. Why would you hide something that you don't want anyone to find in a place where someone could easily find it? It defeats the purpose."

"You think it's here?" Ben asked.

I nodded slightly, "Yeah, I saw the President's secret seal on the key pad. That book has got to be hidden somewhere on that shelf."

Ben looked up at the shelf. He handed the book he had in his hand to Riley, he grabbed the ladder that was on the side of the book case and slid it over to where he was and started handing books on the shelf to Riley.

"What is that?" Abby said looking up at the shelf.

"It's a six dial combination lock." He replied.

"Did the President happen to give you a code for that one too?" I asked him.

"The location's the combination." Ben answered.

"The location is the combination…"Riley repeated in awe.

Ben finished putting in the combination and a compartment slowly lowered with the book inside.

We all watched almost in awe as Ben pulled the book down.

"I was right." Riley said smiling.

"Well done Mr. Poole." Ben congratulated him.

"I knew you were right." I said kissing his cheek.

"The eagle and the scroll." Riley pointed out as Ben started to open the book.

"Area 51 there-" Riley pointed out excitedly as Ben tried to find the page we were looking for.

"Kennedy assassination." Riley pointed out another one.

"We don't have time." Ben told him.

"Yeah, that's true." Riley conceded.

"Here…" Ben said when he finally found the page. "April1865, Queen Victoria sends Pike 2 coded missives. The first is received. Contains information regarding New World Treasure. The City of Gold."

"Wait, the Queen wanted to help the confederacy?" Riley asked.

"Well, if I were in her shoes I would have wanted to."

"Why?"

"Well, the civil war, if I wanted to take over America, would have been the best time to do it because the states were fighting against each other. If the confederates won, America would have been divided."

"Divided America would have been weaker." Abby commented.

"Therefore it would have been easier to take over both and gain the land England lost in the revolutionary war and possibly more." I finished.

"And they need cotton from the south." Ben added in, and then commented, "That theory of yours is disturbing."

"No, it's not, it's logical." I replied.

"Thank you Mr. Spock, may we continue with this?" Ben asked annoyed, and by look on his face he didn't really want an answer. "Good." He said, and then continued reading, "The second missive was thought to have contained a playfair cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye who will hide clues before his death." Ben looked up from the book at us, "That was the cipher hidden in the Booth diary page that Thomas tried to burn."

Riley nodded, "Which we have."

"Exactly. 1880, Resolute Desk arrives in Washington, sent by Queen to President Hayes." Ben read and then turned the page. There was a picture of the plank on it. "Look at that." He said giving it to Abby.

"Missing plank from the White House." Abby said, "Wow."

"Here's the final entry by President Coolidge." Ben said, and then read, "1924, I found a plank in secret desk compartment. Plank photographed and then destroyed." Ben shook his head. "Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills Mountains."

"Borglum?" Abby questioned, "Mount Rushmore?"  
"He carved Mount Rushmore to erase the maps landmarks in order to protect the City of Gold." Ben said.

"Mount Rushmore was a cover up…"Riley said surprised, "Huh…"

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked rhetorically.

"You work for the government; you wouldn't be surprised by this stuff. You already knew about some of the things in the book." Riley replied.

Police sirens abruptly pulled us out of our thoughts.

Riley looked out the window, "There's my tax dollars at work coming to arrest me.

"They're not coming for you Riley. They're coming for me." Ben stated, "Go to the car."

"No, Ben-" Abby started.

"Go, I'll meet up with you." Ben said. I opened my mouth to say something, he looked at me and then to Riley and said, "Take her; make sure she stays in the car. I'll be right behind you."

We quickly raced down the stairs, through the door of the restricted access section, and quickly made our way to the door that led the back lower entrance of the library.

"You have your badge on hand?" Abby asked.

"You have your ID?" I asked her. The both questions unnecessary and had obvious answers.

"Touché." She replied.

"How are we gonna find Ben?" Riley asked.

"I don't know." Abby replied.

"He has his phone on him. If he needs to he can call us." I replied, "How much further?"

"Not far." Abby replied.

A couple of Police officers stopped us.

"Who are you?" One them asked.

"We work here." Abby said, showing her badge. "We were told to evacuate."

I pulled out my badge, "I'm FBI, I was told to investigate down here. Ran into these to looking for the way out, I'm escorting them to their car. There's mad man in the library, who apparently kidnapped the President, haven't heard the whole story yet, but I thought I would help them get to where they needed to go."

"It's crazy up there I don't know what's going on in there." Riley commented.

They started talking at the same time trying to explain.

The two policemen nodded to each other.

"Go ahead." The one who had spoken said. We thanked them and went ahead.

Abby  
unlocked the car and we quickly piled in. Abby started the car.

"What's the problem? It's clear. Let's go." A police officer said, pointing his flash light at us.

"We're going to jail." Riley murmured.

As the police officer started to report us, Abigail opened the back hatch and started to drive. Ben jumped into the car, Abby closed the back hatch, and we sped off with police cars chasing after us. We got through the gate, just as the barricade was coming up. The first police car behind us crashed into the barricade and we sped off before anymore could follow.

"That did not turn out the way it was supposed to." Riley stated.

"I never said my plan was full proof." I replied.

"How did they find us so quickly?" Abigail asked.

"I'll tell you how; the President is a tattle tale." Riley exclaimed.

"What are you five?" I asked, "The secret service probably got antsy when they noticed the President was gone."

"Sadusky. He was there. He knows more about the book than I originally thought." Ben said.

"And he tried to call me-"

Riley cut me off, "He could have called you about a lot of things. It could have been a call like the last time he called when we were searching for treasure."

"He can't dictate what I do with my vacation." I stated.

"No, but he can arrest you if you decide to do something illegal with your free time." He replied.

"Oh is that why people get arrested?" I asked sarcastically. "I thought people got arrested for doing things that were legal."

"How'd the President feel about being kidnapped?" Abby asked Ben, changing the subject.

"He was okay." Ben replied, "Riley, switch seats with me and you two solve whatever that just was. I don't want to hear it when start searching Mount Rushmore."

Riley obliged and switched seats with Ben. Ben started to tell Abby about what happen. Riley, noticing that I haven't put on my seatbelt yet, pulled me closer to him. "I get why you snapped at me. You're still on edge about a lot of things. It's okay. You're going to be okay. We're going to be fine. It'll end up like last time, except for me, who will go to jail because of the IRS." He said in a hushed tone.

"Which I could pay off, if you'd just let me."

"No. I'm not going to let you do that."

"The money doesn't matter to me. I don't have anything to use it on and I want to help you."

"It matters to me." He replied, and changed the subject before I could argue with him on it. "What else is bothering you? I know that isn't the only thing, so don't try to evade it."

"What if Wilkinson is worse than Ian?" I asked him.

"I don't know if that's possible." Riley replied.

I looked up at him, "Riley, I have a bad feeling about this. We don't really know anything about Wilkinson. He could be more dangerous than we think."

"What's the worst possible ending you can think of that this may end in?" Riley asked.

"We find the treasure and then all die in a watery grave beneath Mount Rushmore and no one ever finds us and we become one of those unsolved cases that they play on those shows about those types of things happening to people."

"Wow, that's morbid... It didn't have Mitch involved in it though."

"I have other situations I thought of that involved him, but I thought that one was the worst because all of us died."

"Well now we know what the worst possible situation would be and anything other than that would be a happy surprise." Riley replied, and then changed the subject, "Well, we've learned at least one thing from tonight."

"What? We're not crazy?"

"No, there's evidence that all of the historic American landmarks may be cover-ups." Riley replied

I looked up at him. He had a smile on his face. I didn't quite know what to make of that comment. I laughed lightly and shook my head.

"I start talking cover up evidence with you the day we discover that the Disney landmarks are cover ups."

"They could be." Riley argued jokingly.

I laughed, "I doubt it."

**Ben's POV:**

"You never know." Riley told Bianca.

"Disney is not a cover up." Bianca objected.

"It could be." Riley argued.

"No it couldn't." Bianca replied.

"It's gonna be a long night." I told Abigail.

"Yeah, but at least those two are back to how they were." Abigail replied, "Where are we going?"

"My sister, Tess, lives near the Black Hills. We're eventually going there. For right now, I don't know."

**AN2: Hey, I know I say this a lot, but review. Tell me what your thinking. What do you think of Bianca's theory of how England could have taken over the United States? Do you agree with her theory? If not, how would you do it? Do you think Disney could be a cover up? **

**Tell me what you think! **


	17. Chapter 15 Part One: Out a Window

**AN: Hey I know it's been a little while since I updated. Sorry, been a little busy. This is the first part of chapter 15. As a whole the chapter is called "Visiting Tess". **

**The whole chapter is dedicated to Guin Parris, Anti-Creddie All Seddie, Sweetortonlover86, sapurplemonkey, FATCAT14, and BuzzyDeanPoP. Wow. Thank you all of you. I hope you all enjoy the chapter and the rest of the story.  
**

**Oh, news relating to the story, I'm working on the epilogue! I got bored the other day and decided to just see if I could come up with anything for it. The first one got scrapped actually my computer had crashed and took away the first epilogue with it. Not that I would really be able to do it anymore because it had sort of a Christmas theme too it...We're half way to February. Not my favorite month of the year, but I will not go off on my rant about Valentine's Day today. ****Anyway the epilogue is in the works. It's gonna be another songfic type thing. I'm not going to put any spoilers out on the song because I don't really want to put this certain spoiler out on the story.**

**Speaking of stories since we're almost finished with the movie verse (literally the next scene is them going to Rushmore which won't be till chapter 16), I thought I would ask this. Would you guys want another story after this? I have an idea that's pretty good, but I won't write anything on it unless you guys want it. So think about it a little and as always review and tell me what your thinking.**

**Enjoy.**

Chapter Fifteen Part 1: Out a Window

Bianca's POV:

We got a call from Dad an hour later. We were going to meet him, Aaron, and Alyssa at Tess' tomorrow. Dad was going to call ahead and warn her ahead of time.

I laughed and said to Ben, "Mother hen is not going to like this. She's gonna be goin' off the deep end when she finds out."

"Bi, that isn't nice." Ben replied trying not to laugh.

"It's true!" I replied.

"It is true about you. I haven't done anything to make her angry with or weary of me." Ben replied.

"What have I done?" I asked.

"Do you want the short list or the long?" He replied, "Both of them start with your disregard of her career."

I laughed, "She's a shrink. And I don't blatantly disregard her career. I tease her a bit."

"The last time you visited her, you told her suicidal patient to jump out a window." Ben remarked. Abby and Riley both looked at me oddly.

"He had been complaining to her for years and telling her over and over that he was going to kill himself. All I did was tell him that he'd been tell that for years, and then opened the window and said 'well?'. It's not like he actually tried to jump or anything. And if I remember correctly the experience actually helped him."

"You got lucky that time." He replied.

"I get lucky a lot." I replied.

"Try to stay on her good side this time and behave unlike when we were going up." Ben told me.

"Behave?" I asked him innocently, "I never misbehaved. I was angel."

"That's not quite the word I would have called you." Ben replied.

"I was also like ten years younger than she is. She shouldn't have expected me go act older than what I was." I told him, "Not that she's the best role model either."

Ben rolled his eyes, "Neither are you."

"And nor are you." I replied.

"I'm lost." Riley said, "Why are we visiting your sister if you two aren't fond of her?"

"Because she lives near Mount Rushmore and we need some help formulating a plan."

"How is Tess going to help?" Abby asked, "You said she's a psychologist."

"She isn't going to help us. Tristan is." I smiled.

"Who's Tristan?" Riley asked.

"Our nephew, he's 20. He works at Mount Rushmore during the summer. He knows the layout pretty well and can help us plan everything out." I replied.


	18. Chapter 15 Part Two: Stories

**AN: Hey everyone! Here is part two of chapter 15. The whole chapter is as you know called 'Visiting Tess'. I wanted to show the family dynamic a little bit more in this part.**

**If you guys want the full story or more of what you see at the bottom please review and tell me. The story is gonna be somewhat of a reference to one of my favorite TV shows. **

**The next part should be out soon. This will be 3 to 4 parts at most, and then I'll go to chapter sixteen and back into movie verse. I just wanted a little more fluff before we got to the treasure hunting and Mitch almost killing everyone. **

**Enjoy!**

Part Two: Stories

We got to Tess' house in the late afternoon. Ben and Riley talked to Tristan about Rushmore so they could get a plan together. Aaron and John were already discussing the case files he had shown me in Maryland. Abby and Alyssa talked to Tess. I didn't really know or care what about. Tess and I were never very close. I guess you could say we were sisters only by blood; our bond has never been very strong. Growing up, I was closer with Ben and John. I had more in common with them.

"I'm surprised you're not talking to Henry and Elizabeth. I believe you owe them a story." Dad said to me. Henry and Elizabeth are my nephew and niece. Henry is ten and Elizabeth is six.

I looked at Dad, "You and I both know Tess doesn't like it when I tell them stories. She says I mess up the fairytales."

"I don't know if I would call it messing them up, maybe more of reimagining them." Dad replied, "Maybe you could try this time telling them one that doesn't include something that she has brought up a complaint about."

"Find a loophole, you mean?"

"If there is one, I don't see a reason not to use it."

"I might have one about Beauty and the Beast that doesn't have pirates in it." I replied thinking about it.

"What's wrong with pirates?"

"Apparently they promote violence and bad morals and shouldn't be romanticized." I replied.

"Oh god. What fairytales did you put pirates in?"

"I put a version of Captain Hook in the Little Mermaid because I don't like the prince in the Disney version, and then I put pirates in Cinderella because I thought the story needed more stimulation."

"You put Captain Hook as a romantic lead?" Dad asked questioningly.

"Yeah. I thought it would be more entertaining if she went with a pirate." I replied.

"What are you changing about Beauty and the Beast?" He asked.

"The Beast." I replied.

He looked at me odd and then shook his head, "I don't wanna know what you're going to do with him."

"Neither do I, I make it up as I go." I replied.

"Speaking of making up as you go, what did you do about the kid?" Dad asked.

"Kid?" I asked.

"Your fiancé or ex-fiancé? Whatever he is now."

"Oh!" I exclaimed finally getting who he was talking about, "We're still getting married in a sense."

"How much am I paying for this one?"

"Nothing. We're not having a wedding." I replied, "We're eloping after the treasure is found."

"Do you want this?"

"I suggested it." I answered, "We're not really ones for a big fuss anyway."

"No you're not. You would have probably married him the day after he asked you."

"I thought about it."

"Don't let the other three talk you out of it this time. Do what you two want to do." Dad replied, "I'm going to see what the boys are doing about Rushmore."

Dad made his way over to the dining room where Tristan, Ben, and Riley were looking at maps. I made my way down to the basement where Elizabeth and Henry were.

When I went down, they were watching the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. _'Now that's an odd coincidence.' _I thought.

"I love this movie. It's one of my favorite Disney movies. I always liked Belle." I said to the two as I made my way over to them.

They turned around to look at me with big smiles on their faces. "Aunt Bi!" They exclaimed.

"Hi." I smiled.

"When did you get here?" Henry asked.

"Not too long ago." I replied.

"You owe us a story." Elizabeth pointed out.

"That isn't nice, Lizzie. She doesn't owe us anything thing." Henry scolded her, "Although it would be nice, if you have one."

I laughed. They reminded me of Ben and I when we were little.

"I might have one for Beauty and the Beast if you wanna hear it." I replied. They stopped the movie and turned around to face me. I took it as a gesture as if to say go on. "There once was a castle in a faraway kingdom that was being attacked by an army of monstrous beasts. The king in a desperate attempt to save his kingdom sent out for help from a dark wizard named Kalen, who was cursed with dark magic many eons ago…" And with that I started telling them the story of the Beauty and the Beast.


	19. Chapter 15 Part 3: Beauty and the Beast

**AN: Hey everyone! Here is the next part of chapter fifteen. There is only one more part after this. **

**I decided to put the story in it. The story was based on and inspired by Once Upon a Time. I love that show. It is a great show. I did show a bit more of the family dynamic at the end, well I showed more of the sister dynamic. **

**Next part is going to be Riley/Bianca centered, and then next chapter will be back into movie verse and to Mount Rushmore, which apparently according to National Treasure is a cover up. That would be cool if it were true.**

**So, tell me what your thinking and review.**

**Enjoy everyone!**

Part Three: Beauty and the Beast

_"It's been weeks since we sent for the Dark Wizard." The king stated, "He is not going to answer. We have to devise a plan to rid the kingdom of the beasts ourselves."_

_"There is still time. They have not passed the kingdom gate as of yet. He could be on his way." Belle argued in defense of the Dark Wizard. _

_"She is quite right. I could have been easily on my way." Everyone in the throne room turned in the direction of the voice, Kalen the Dark was sitting on the arm rest the King's throne. "Such little faith in "your savior", my lord?" He asked amusingly. _

_"You are no savior." The King retorted._

_"You did send me a message, didn't you? Because I remember getting a message saying: "Save us! Our kingdom is dying!" If you've solved your problem on your own, then I can be on my way."_

_"No!" The king and his administrators exclaimed. _

_"Alrighty then." Kalen replied, "I can help your little kingdom, but I want something in return."_

_"We sent you a promise of gold." The King retorted._

_"I'm a Wizard. I don't need gold. If I wanted it, all I had to do is conjure it. I want something a little more special. And if I remember correctly, you promised treasure, not gold."_

_"That is what was implied." The king retorted. _

_"Either way my price for saving your kingdom doesn't change. My price is her." Kalen said pointing at Belle. _

_"No." The king replied. _

_"Not all treasure is silver and gold, my lord." Kalen commented nonchalantly, "I am in the need of a caretaker for my estate. You promised treasure for me to save your kingdom, and I am in need of a caretaker. It's her or no deal."_

_"Get out." The king replied, "Leave!"_

_"Alright, alright, I know where I am not wanted. I will get out of your hair and let you solve your kingdom issues by yourselves."_

_Kalen started to leave when he heard, "No, wait!" The voice belonged to Belle. She was not going to see the kingdom's best hope of saving walk out the door. She walked over to Kalen, "I will go with you." She told him. _

_"No! I forbid it." The king replied. _

_"No one decides my fate but me. He is our best chance at saving the kingdom." She looked back at her father and then restated to Kalen, "I will go with you." _

_"It's forever, darling." Kalen reminded her. _

_"The kingdom and everyone in it will be safe from harm?" Belle questioned. _

_"It will all be safe. You have my word." _

_"Then you have mine." Belle agreed, "I will go with you forever."_

_"Deal!" Kalen agreed happily. _

_"Belle, don't do this." Her father tried to stop her, "You can't go with Beast. You don't know what you're getting yourself into."_

_"Father, it's been decided. I'm going with him." Belle replied. _

_"You know, she's right. The deal is done." Kalen commented, "She's mine now. Congrats you've won your little war against the monsters attacking your kingdom." _

_Kalen left with Belle right behind him without another word or chance to say goodbye. _

_Kalen took Belle to his castle in the snowy mountains. After he closed the doors, he started making his way through the castle with Belle right on his tail (_figuratively of course._)._

_"Where are we going?" Belle questioned. _

_"Let's call it your room." Kalen answered._

_They walked down the stairs to the dungeon and he opened on of the cell doors. _

_"My room is a cell." She stated. _

_"Very astute. In ya go!" Kalen replied tossing her in the cell and closed the door. He locked the door and walked away. _

_The next day, Kalen let her out and explained to her what her duties were. They were simple taking care of the castle, the laundry, cooking, and serving meals. All of which, she could figure out to do soon enough. He explained her duties in more detail after she got him his morning tea. _

_"The last part of your duties is to skin and burn the small animals and children I hunt every week." Kalen told her. _

_Belle dropped the tea set she was holding out of shock._

_"I was kidding." Kalen told her. _

_She let out a sigh of relief and then bent down to inspect the damage of the tea set. All of it looked in good condition except for the one of the cups. It was chipped. _

_"I'm sorry. One of the cups, it is chipped." She said showing him the cup, "You can barely see it."_

_"It's just a cup." Kalen replied not really caring about it. Belle gave him a small smile and continued on with her duties. As the weeks went by, Kalen gave her a simple dress that was easier work in, so she wouldn't have to go around in a ball gown. _

_"What are you doing?" Kalen asked her as he came into the dining room._

_"Opening the curtains. It's almost spring. We should let some light in. It's so dark in here." Belle replied as she tugged at the curtains, "What did you do? Nail them down?"_

_"Yes." Kalen answered as if it were obvious._

_She tried to pull at them again to open them and they ripped, she fell from the ladder. Kalen caught her right in time. _

_"Thank you." Belle said to him. "Sorry about your curtains I'll put them back up."_

_Kalen looked down at and said as he put her down, "I'll get used to them. Don't worry about it. Just continue with your duties."_

_He walked away. _

_At tea time later that day, they talked for a while. _

_"Why did you want me here, Kalen?"Belle asked. She had been wondering it for a while. It wasn't like he actually needed her around. _

_Kalen shrugged. "The place was filthy. What else would you need a caretaker for?"_

_"I think you were lonely. Any man would be lonely here, secluded in a dark castle all by himself, no villages around, only mountains…"_

_"I'm not a man." Kalen replied simply. _

_"You were a man once, so I've heard." Belle said, "Is that true?" Kalen looked down at the floor. His past was muddled and dark. Belle looked at him, "If I've never going to know anyone for the rest of my life, can I at least get to know you?"_

_"My story's not the happiest tale. There's not much to tell of it either." He shrugged, "I'm a wizard; I've never been a human man. I was cursed with dark magic, and now I am what you could call a monster of a man."_

_"You're not a monster." Belle stated. "You think your uglier than what you are which is why you cover all of the mirrors and the widows."_

_"You had a life." Kalen said changing the subject not really wanting to speak of his appearance. "Why did you choose to come with me?"_

_"Heroism…There isn't a lot of chances for a woman to save her people." She replied, "So when you arrived I saw it as my chance to be able to do something for my people. I've always want to be brave. I figured, do something brave and bravery will eventually follow."_

_"And is this everything you hoped it would be?"_

_"More or less. I did want to see the world one day. That didn't really work out. I saved my kingdom though and that is really all that matters in the end." She replied. _

_"You know what I'll make you a deal. You go down to village outside the mountains and get some more food and supplies for the castle, and when you come back, I give you a way you can see the world in a way."_

_"You're trusting me to come back?" She asked. _

_"No, I expect I'll never see you again." He replied, "No off you pop."_

_She left to go to the village. _

_On her way to the village she question whether she was going to go back to Kalen. He treated her well. He, eventually, gave her an actual room in the castle. If he were normal wizard and not cursed, he would have probably been a different person. _

_As she made her way down the trail to the village, she was stopped by an old woman making her way to the village. The old woman walked with her. _

_"You carry very little." The woman remarked. _

_"I don't want to be slowed down." Belle replied._

_"Running from someone, I see." She remarked, "Master or lover?" Belle remained silent. The woman nodded, "Ah, both. If you love him, then why are you leaving him?"_

_"I might love him. I could love him. There has been a curse been cast upon him."_

_"Sounds like dark magic to me." The woman replied. She knew all about dark magic. She had cast many dark curses in her day to teach lessons of morals to individuals in need of them. "All dark curses can be reversed by true love's kiss usually."_

_Belle looked at her._

_"I wouldn't suggest a woman kiss a man who held her captive, but if he loved you, he would have let you leave. If he didn't, the kiss wouldn't have worked." The woman said as they reached the village, and then she disappeared into the village. _

_Belle headed quickly into the market, bought the food and supplies, and headed back to the castle thinking about what the old woman said, never knowing the woman who she spoke with was the woman who cursed Kalen. _

_When she came back, Kalen met her in the foyer. "You came back…" He replied confused, helping her with the basket. _

_"I had no reason to go other than to get food and supplies."_

_"Well good. I was nearly out of supplies." He replied._

_"Oh c'mon, you're happy I came back." _

_"I cannot say that I am unhappy." He replied. _

_"And you promised me a way to see the world in return." She reminded him. _

_"I did." He nodded, "Follow me." He led her to the library and opened the doors. "This room is yours and everything in it. There are many books on the world and the different kingdoms and other places."_

_In excitement, she hugged him, "Thank you!" She loved to read. It was in a way she would get to see the world. _

_As she started to pull away, she looked at her confused, "Why did you come back?"_

_"I wasn't going to." She looked down and told him honestly. She looked into his eyes "But something changed my mind." She kissed him lightly. He responded to the kiss. She pulled away and looked at him. He was gaining more color in his face than the silvery blue skin tone that made him almost look like a corpse. _

_"What's going on?"Kalen asked noticing the change. _

_"Your curse is being broken. True love's kiss breaks dark curses."_

_He backed away as he skin started going back to the silvery blue color. One very light kiss wasn't enough to change him back especially if he didn't want the change. "I don't want it to be broken. I've got deals to make. Who told you about true loves kiss?"_

_"A beggar woman I met on the road told me about true loves kiss. I thought it was a myth when I read about it as a child. What does it matter though? You can make your deals without dark magic."_

_"Dark magic is more binding than pure magic!"Kalen exclaimed. _

_"What about love? The kiss was working. That means its true love."_

_"No one could ever love me." He yelled at her, and then grabbed her by her arm and dragged her to her room and locked her in._

_The next day, Kalen unlocked the door, and went in. _

_"What are you going to do to me?" Belle asked._

_"Leave." Kalen ordered. _

_"You want me to leave? Why?"_

_"I don't want you anymore. You're of no use to me." He lied. He wanted her. He need her. She was of more use to him that his powers at times. He was terrified of losing his powers to something that could be a gamble. It was better for him to get rid of her now than to have it hurt more later. _

_Belle got up confused and started to leave, but turned around and said, "You are freeing yourself from hurt you could possibly have later on. You could have had love if you just believed that someone could love you and want you. You could have been happy! But you're a coward, Kalen. You don't want to take the chance." _

_"That's a lie." Kalen retorted. _

_"No, no it's not, Kalen." Belle replied, "You're a coward. You're too afraid of what could happen if you went back to being a regular wizard."_

_"I am not a coward." Kalen stated. "My powers that come with this curse means more to me than you do."_

_"No it doesn't, and that terrifies you because you don't think I can love you." Belle replied, "You've made your choice. And you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. All you'll have is an empty castle, an empty heart, and a chipped cup." _

"With that said she left and never looked back…" I told them, not really knowing where to go next with the story. "Okay, next I'll tell you the other half of the story."

"But what happens next?" Henry asked.

"You'll find out next time." I told them.

"This cliffhanger isn't happy." I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around noticing that the rest of the adults decided to come downstairs. The voice had belonged to Tristan.

"People…Wow…Hi…" I greeted them not really expecting them to be here. "The cliffhanger isn't happy because it isn't the end." I replied to Tristan and then went over to Ben and Riley, "How long have you guys been standing here?"

"Since the wizard took the girl to the castle." Ben replied as Tristan went over to talk to Elizabeth and Henry.

"Good to know."

"Why do you tell them stories like that?" Tess asked.

I rolled my eyes, "They like them. It excites their imagination. What does it matter what kind of stories I tell them? It's not like they go against any moral codes or anything."

"They're not good for their psychological being."

I pulled her out of the room, so the kids wouldn't hear us. "Psychological beings? Really? Stop coddling them, Tess. These types of stories could be good for them."

"When you have kids then you can talk to me about coddling." Tess retorted.

"And you think you're so high and mighty, the reason you're here married to John is because he got you pregnant in high school. And my stories are bad example of morals? Double standard much?"

"Speaking from the woman whose career is basically going to be the death of her and her sanity?"

"Oh my god, it is not. There is nothing wrong with my career. At least I actually help people with my job."

"How is keeping a decapitated head in your fridge helping people?"

"It was for science! I was studying it." I replied annoyed.

"That isn't natural!" She exclaimed.

"My job isn't your concern." I retorted.

"And how I raise my children isn't yours." She retorted.


	20. Chapter 15 Part Four: Children

**AN: Hey everyone! I hope you liked the part three. Here is the last part of chapter fifteen. This last part is substantially shorter than part three, but it raises an important question that every serious couple must answer sooner or later. So I hope you enjoy this last part, and the next chapter should be up soon.**

**Enjoy!**

Part Four: Children

"So, does the story have a happy ending?" Riley asked as we headed to the guest room we were staying in.

"Uh yeah, I guess. I don't know. I kinda make it up as I go."

"You stopped it because you didn't know what happened next."

"Basically." I replied as we went inside. He closed the door behind us.

"Seemed liked they liked it though."

"They don't get to hear a lot of stories that actually entertain them."

"You and your sister don't get along at all, do you?"

I shrugged, "Nope, never have. We're ten years apart; I think it's normal, if we don't."

"Wouldn't know, I'm an elder sibling, and my sister's around your age...Although I wouldn't call us the closest siblings, she's never really in the country or in cell service. She's an archeologist. I think she's in South Africa right now."

"She's doing what she loves, nothing wrong with that."

"Nothing wrong with your job either."

"How much did you hear of that conversation?"

"All of it." Riley replied, "Not taking any sides, you both made good points in your arguments, but you shouldn't try to tell her how to raise her kids."

"She should deprive them of their imaginations."

"Tristan turned out pretty well. She must have done something right."

"I looked after Tristan up until the time she got her PHD."

"How long did that take?"

"About 10 years. Ben watched him up until the time he was four, then it was my turn. We had a lot of fun."

"Looked like you were having fun earlier, you were really focused in entertaining them. You never noticed anyone come down."

"I guess." I shrugged, "Didn't really notice."

"I noticed that."

"Do you want kids, Ri?" I asked.

Riley looked at me oddly, "Are you-"

"No, no, I'm not. It's just we've never talked about it. I was just curious."

"I don't know. I've never thought of it." He replied, "Do you?"

"Well, yeah, I do."

Riley didn't really respond after that. I didn't push it the subject either, not tonight anyway.


	21. Chapter 16: Run

**AN: Hey everyone! Here is chapter 16. We're back in movie verse, well most of this chapter is. The ending of the chapter isn't. I wanted to be a little different from the National Treasure stories I've read. They either have the girl go with the parents or go with the rest of the group. I did neither and played around with the scene a bit. **

**I did throw a reference in at the end. As you all can obviously tell, I love movie references they're fun. This one is very obvious if you've seen the movie, actually old trailers for Disney movies that talk about the like the wonders of Disney movies or something like that, like I'm talking 90's Disney movie VHS' had a clip of this in their commercials. I'm a huge Disney and movie buff. Hope you like the reference too. I'll tell you what it is next chapter if you don't get it. **

**The chapter is dedicated to Guin Parris. **

**Enjoy and happy reading! **

**Chapter Sixteen: Run**

I stood next to Riley waiting for whatever plan he, Ben and Tristan came up with to come into play. We were all stationed at different points in the trail. Riley and I were pretending to look at a book about Mount Rushmore. Alyssa and Aaron were a little ways behind us. Abby was talking to a ranger. And Ben and Dad were above us.

"Why are we waiting?" I asked out of curiosity.

"We're waiting for Mitch." He replied simply. Just before I could as why, Mitch passed us and he was talking to,

"mom…" I said quietly in recognition as they passed.

Riley whistled to Abby, who looked up at Ben and Dad. They stopped them.

"Hello Mitch." Ben greeted, and then started to say "Mom-"

A woman and her kids passed them.

"I knew you would figure out the message I gave your father." Mom said to him.

"The humming bird was good." Ben replied, "Let her go, Mitch."

"We're the ones with the fire power and you're giving me orders?" Mitch questioned. Ben looked down to me quickly and I nodded. There were two questions he was asking in a way. 'Do I actually have guns on me this time' and 'Did I tell Sadusky where we were headed'. And to both of which the answers were yes.

"I kidnapped the President. The FBI is on their way here right now to arrest me and I'm sure they'll love to meet you to. They'll find us both and arrest us both, and that path doesn't lead to The City of Gold, does it?"

"Ben, this man has information you need. He's got a letter." Mom told him.

"Sent from Queen Victoria to General Albert Pike." Ben said.

"How do you know about that?" Mitch questioned.

"I read about it in a book." Ben replied.

"I'm afraid he's burned it." Mom informed him.

"Alright." Ben said, "You've had me do all the work so far, why stop now? You tell me what you know, I'll find The City of Gold, prove Thomas Gates' innocence, you can have all the treasure."

"What?" Riley and I questioned in surprise.

"I'm goin' with you, but if anyone's gonna be credited for finding the city of gold, it's gonna be me." Mitch replied.

"But your partners stay here and all the guns." Ben told him.

"What make you think I'd agree to that?" Mitch questioned.

"Because you need that treasure." Ben replied, "Believe me I know."

"Alright Gates, we do it your way." Mitch agreed and handed his gun to one of his partners, "But believe me, I don't need the guns."

Ben moved ahead, ignoring his comment. Mitch followed him.

"Which President? The President?" Mom asked Dad.

"I thought it best not to tell you." Dad answered as they moved ahead.

"What was Ben looking at you for when Mitch talked about the fire arms?" Riley asked after we were out of earshot of Mitch's partners.

"It was kind of a silent question." I answered, "Well two."

"What?"

"Basically did I come prepared and did I tip off Sadusky." I replied.

"Why would you hint-"

"Ben asked." I replied shrugging.

"Hey Bianca do you have the food?" Aaron asked as he and Alyssa came up to us.

"Of course, you'd be questioning for food." I rolled my eyes, "yeah it's in my bag." I handed him the back pack. Before I could say it was in the front he opened the back zipper.

"Why do you have two of these?" Aaron asked.

I rolled my eyes, "Close that zipper. Food's in the front, and that's not the only place I have them."

"How many of those do you own?" Alyssa asked as she handed me back my backpack after Aaron got one of the energy bars.

"Three?" I asked Riley to make sure I had the right number.

"Four. We got the one Ian stole last time." Riley replied.

"Why four?" Alyssa asked, "What are you afraid of?"

"Not a damn thing." I replied almost with a smile. Riley and I moved up ahead as they looked at me surprised.

"If you're backpack isn't the only place you have them, where are you keeping the other two?" Riley asked.

"One's on me and the other is at home." I replied.

"Where are you keeping it on you? I can't tell that you have it."

I smiled at him, "I guess you'll just have to find out later."

"Why'd you decide to bring them?" Riley asked, "It's not like you need one."

"Because I don't have a good feeling about this."

"The last time you said that we were heading into the church with Ian and his men, and that didn't turn out well-"

"Until we turned the tables on him." I reminded.

"Yeah and now his men are killing people and creating a disturbance, while he most likely is trying to plan his way out of prison." Riley replied, "Is this feeling better or worse than the feeling you had last time?"

"Do you want the truth or something that's gonna make you feel better?" I asked.

He sighed, "I'm gonna regret this, truth."

"Worse." I replied.

"What's the worst possible scenario that could happen in your mind with this?" Riley asked.

"We find the City of Gold, we get trapped down there, the place floods, we all die, and nobody ever finds us."

"Anything short of that then will be a happy surprise." Riley replied.

"I hope your right." I replied.

We all caught up to Ben and Mitch on the island of stone.

"Alright, Mitch; let's have it. What did the letters say?" Ben asked, "What's the clue from Queen Victoria's letter?"

"The entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain." Mitch replied.

'_We're definitely in the wrong state for that weather._' I thought.

"Figure that one out." Mitch said.

"So we come back when it's raining?" Riley asked.

I smiled and shook my head, figuring it out. '_Not necessarily. If you think about it, it just says we need water to reveal the mark to where the entrance would be._'

"Cloudless could simply mean the sun. You need a sunny day and rain. We need water." Ben said figuring it out.

"Water?" Riley questioned.

I took out a water bottle for me and handed him one. Ben took out one for himself and tossed one to Abigail. Aaron took one out for him and Alyssa.

"The water makes the rocks darker. Use the water." Ben explained. We spread out and started to water the rocks.

"Over here! Found it!" Abigail yelled, "Over here!"

We all ran over to her to see the entrance.

"It's an eagle." She had told Ben as I made my way over to them.

"The noble bird..." Ben commented.

"Will give you passage." Mom said.

"Uh-huh…" Abigail said.

"I think we need to join hands and in a noble manner pass over the bird." Riley said. Mom look at him oddly and then looked to me as if to say '_you sure he's the one_'. Dad, Mom, and Riley all started to talk at the same time. Mom and Dad were arguing and Riley was going on his bird theory.

I didn't hear the first part of what Mitch said, but I did hear, "I can give you the next clue."

"That would have been helpful earlier." I replied.

"Bianca!" Riley, Ben, and Dad said annoyed as if to say shut up.

"Surrender your hand to the heart the heart of the warrior." Mitch said.

"And the eagle is the symbol of the warrior." Mom commented.

Ben started to put his hand in.

"Ben wait, no. That's probably a horrible trap." Mom tried to tell him not to do it. "Tell him." She said to dad.

"It's a horrible trap."

'_I doubt it._' I thought, but I could be wrong. You never know.

"It would be a pity to come this far and not even try, now would it?" Mitch said.

Ben looked at the eagle

"I'll do it." Riley offered.

"No." I argued, "If something actually did happen, your career as a techie would be pretty much over."

"It's okay." Ben said to us, "Surrender your hand." Ben put his hand in. He was obviously fine because he discretely winked at me. The only time he did that was when we used to play practical jokes on Tess. I looked at him curiously and then put on a stoic face so no one would know.

Ben screamed his bloody head off, which caused everyone else in the group to scream. Ben and I started laughing.

"I am sorry I couldn't resist." Ben apologized.

"How did you know he was going to do that?" Riley asked me. Mom looked like to know as well.

I shrugged. "We used to do stuff like that to Tess."

Ben opened the entrance. We headed down to it and went inside.

Inside were three different areas. Mom and dad went down the stairs to look at the relics. Aaron, Alyssa, and I were on the other side looking at the different markings on the walls. Ben, Abigail, Riley, and Mitch were looking at the contraption ahead of us.

"Ben, what is that?" Abby asked him.

"It's seems to be a counter weight holding the door open." Ben answered.

"What is that sound?" Riley asked.

Suddenly the area started falling apart. The door closed.

"Sorry." Riley apologized.

"Are you okay?" Mitch asked him, helping him up.

"Only one way out of here now." Mitch said.

"He's right." I agreed. "That thing is stone and bolted. Best thing to do is move forward."

Mitch and I moved ahead. Alyssa and Aaron right behind us. They rest of the group trailed behind.

"How long you been an agent?" Mitch asked, making polite conversation.

"How do you know what I do?"

"How you come across, it's obvious you're in law enforcement. This situation doesn't bother you, for example."

"Been working with them since I was around 16, I'm 29 now." I replied, "You do the math."

"Thirteen years. That's a pretty long time."

"I've seen people who've worked longer." I replied as we came across what looked like a dead end.

Mitch went over it, and said, "Looks like we'll be digging some rock people, there's a tunnel back here."

"Guys, look at this." Riley said point his lantern at the golden relic.

I went over to him, "What is that?"

"It's a little golden man." He replied. "It's got a tiny little torso." He, Abby, Ben and Mitch start to step forward towards it. Aaron, Alyssa and I went over to the side of it. Dad and Mom stayed behind.

Abby, Riley, Ben, and Mitch slid down what was essentially a trap door. When Alyssa, Aaron, and I got close enough to the wall, the wall moved. We fell into other side of it and it shut itself behind us.

"How in the-" I asked, but before I could say anything, the floor angled itself downward, and we slid down the, I guess you could call it a tunnel, and landed in a large pool of water.

"Cold!" I exclaimed as made my way back onto the dry land.

"What did you expect?" Aaron retorted.

"Oh shut up! I don't know how yet, but I'm betting it's your fault we got down here."

"Will both of you just stop it for once?" Alyssa asked, "We're stuck down here together. Freezing and drenched you two arguing isn't going to help matters."

"Fine. Let's just keep moving forward." I replied reluctantly agreeing with her. Then I heard a snap. "What was that?" I asked.

"I don't know." Alyssa replied, "It wasn't me."

There was a rumbling noise behind us. We all looked up there was a boulder quickly coming towards us.

"Run." Aaron exclaimed. We didn't argue with him.

We all sprinted forward as fast as we could.


	22. Chapter 17: Reunited

**AN: Hi everyone! Well here is another chapter. Most of it is in movie verse. It's a pretty good size chapter too. I only have one more scene in movie verse and then I am done with the actual movie, after that I have a couple of more things to cover and loose ends to tie up. I tied up one of the ends in this chapter. Riley need a job, so I kinda gave him one. **

**This chapter is dedicated to wintersunds2. **

**I hope everyone likes the chapter. **

**Oh before I forget the movie reference in the last chapter was the boulder. I love the boulder scene in Indiana Jones and I found a way I could put it in here so I did. **

**Happy reading everyone!**

**Chapter Seventeen: Reunited**

We got to a fork in the tunnel. One side was an ancient rickety bridge; the other was darker and not much to the tunnel that we could see.

"Bridge!" Aaron yelled tell where to head.

Just as we were half way to the other side the ropes to where we got on the bridge broke. We all screamed, and held tighter to the sides of the bridge as we fell. We slammed against the other side of the connection.

After a few seconds, I noticed Alyssa and Aaron still hanging on to the bridge.

"Climb, idiots! This bridge could go at any second! We can't just hang here!" I yelled at them annoyed hoping they would get a move on, so I could climb up. I was behind them, if they didn't start climbing now, if the bridge were to break, I would be going down with it. I'd rather not die today; I've got a little too much to live for. They glared at me. I glared back, "Oh for God's sake! Move! The more time we spend hanging here, the less chance we have of getting out of this place alive. Now let's get a move on!"

They both kept glaring, but they followed orders. We climbed up the bridge and got back on the ledge. We followed the passage way that was connected with the ledge.

"I can't see anything, is this it?" We heard someone yell at the end of the passage way.

'_Riley…_' I thought, and then exclaimed, "Riley!" I ran ahead of Alyssa and Aaron, not really caring about being soaked and freezing anymore. Not really thinking about how sore I was going to be later from everything that has happened so far. I just focused on the pathway ahead of me that was starting to get brighter.

I stopped when I got to the end of the pathway, "Oh my god… Oh please tell me, I actually alive and seeing this." I thought aloud as I watched the water flowing down. I saw Ben, Abby, Riley, and Mitch going down to the middle of the area.

"There's no forward." Abby yelled to them.

"It's not forward its down." Ben yelled to her, "All of this water has to go out somewhere otherwise it'd be filled up. Help me turn this wheel."

I started to make my way down as they all when toward the wheel. As they started to move it, I made my presence known and asked them, "Need any help?"

Before they could really answer I grabbed the handle between Riley and Abby and started to help them lift and turn the wheel. As we turned it all of the water started to go down faster.

"The water's goin' down." Mitch stated as we finished and moved ahead to the passage that was revealed.

"I see you've finally found us." Ben greeted me as we followed Mitch.

"Sorry got a little lost. The other two are still on their way down here."

"How did you get down here faster than they did?" Abby asked.

"I ran. I heard Riley's voice and sprinted down here." I replied, "Cheesy, but effective."

"Bianca!" Riley exclaimed hugging me from behind, "How did you- Where were-" He started many different questions, not knowing which one to ask, finally noticing the full state that I was in and settling on, "Why are you all wet? What happened to you?"

"Fell into a large pool of water." I replied, "I'll explain everything that happened back there if we live through this, and we can swap stories."

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I will be." I answered honestly. I knew if I lied, he'd see through it anyway, "Are you?"

"Still a little shook up, but I will be." I replied as we got to the end of the passage way, which revealed the City of Gold.

"Ben! Bianca!"

Ben and I looked up to see Mom and Dad waving at us.

"Dad! We found it!" Ben yelled to them.

"Thomas was right." Dad stated.

"No, you were right!" Ben replied.

Riley and Abby went ahead looking at the city a bit. Aaron and Alyssa who had finally found us joined them.

"I'm sorry I sneered your great great granddaddy's good name." Mitch apologized, "It seemed like the only way to get you in on the hunt. This was a chance for the Wilkinson family to make its mark on history. To find the City of Gold. To be remembered."

Ben nodded to him, accepting his apology. He looked to me, "I'm going to go talk to mom and dad, you coming?"

"I'm gonna stay here for a bit." I replied, "You go."

"Alright." He left.

"Your reasoning is understandable, Mitch. I guess I would have done something remotely similar if I were in the same situation." I told him, "You know if you just asked us to help, we probably would have."

"You would have believed a random person asking you to help him find the City of Gold?" Mitch asked.

"I did once." I replied, and then warned, "Don't do anything you're going to regret, Mitch. I've been studying you for a while; you're going to try something. If you do, it's not going to end well."

I got up and went up to a bit of a higher area so I could watch the water patterned. There was something off about being here. It was a little too eerie for my tastes.

"Whatcha doin?" Riley asked coming over to me.

"Watching water patterns." I replied simply

"Why?" He asked as he put a gold brick into his back.

"The place is going to eventually flood, might as well-" Before I could finish that sentence, there was a loud noise that sounded like something breaking.

"What was that?" Riley asked.

"Listen!" Abigail told him.

All of us looking in the direction the noise came from. One of the dams burst open, which was followed by several other ones bursting.

"I told you this place was going to flood!" I exclaimed to Riley. A dam burst right over us, and we both got soaked. "And to think I thought I couldn't get any wetter… We gotta get off of this."

He nodded, leaving his backpack on the floor as he stood. We both climbed down and made our way over to the others. We followed Mitch and Ben under the main golden building. Riley helped everyone else in and then followed us inside.

"The water's rising too fast. Let's get that door open so we don't all drown." Ben told us.

Ben and Mitch started to open the door let out the water.

"Ben, it slows down. It's a drainage tunnel." Dad informed him, "But it fills with water when you open the door."

"We need to find something to stick under it to keep it open." Abby stated.

"No, if it's open the tunnel will stay flooded." Dad replied, "We gotta get to the other side and close the door."

"Patrick, Emily go!" Riley told them just as the door was open enough for people to get through. Just as Abigail and them started to go to the door, it shut.

"No!" Abigail yelled.

"Mitch, we've gotta be on the other side of that door." Riley yelled at Mitch.

'_This was definitely something I did not want to be right about.'_ I thought.

"Nobody leave unless I say so." Mitch informed us, "That door is not going to stay open by itself. We both know what has to happen here, Ben."

"One of us keeps the door open and stays behind." Ben stated.

"I vote Mitch." Riley stated.

"This isn't a democracy." Mitch told him.

I looked down as he threw a punch at Ben, '_Why do all of these things end in violence?'_ I thought tiredly. When I looked up, Riley was supporting a bloody nose and Abby had a knife to her throat.

"I'm staying!" Ben exclaimed making his way over to the door opener, "Look!" He got up onto the ledge. "See! I'm here! I'm right here. I'm staying."

"Alright, I'll tell everybody how this is gonna go." Mitch said, and then looked to Ben, "You and me gonna open that door." Mitch looked at the rest of us, "Anyone tries to leave before me, I drop the door we start this all over again." He looked back to Ben, "But you try any funny business, I guarantee you people are gonna get hurt."

"I won't. You have my word." Ben promised, "Just let her go."

Mitch let Abigail go. Abby made her way over to me and Riley.

"Ben, we're not leaving without you!" Mom exclaimed.

"I agree with mom. This isn't a good idea, Ben." I agreed.

"Abigail" Ben called over to her. She made her way to him. When she reached him, he told her, "You make my parents leave." She slightly nodded and backed away to over to us. Ben looked to Riley, "Riley, take care of my sister, make sure she gets out of here, and just take care of her. She needs someone to take care of her, even though she doesn't think that she does."

Abby tried to get us to go. None of us wanted to. We couldn't just leave him. As the door opened wider, we didn't have a choice. The current pulled us under and through to the other side.

"We gotta get Ben outta there!" Riley yelled.

Riley, Abby, and I swam over to the door. We went under and pulled him out of the door when it opened wide enough to get the rest of him under.

We sat there for a bit. Abby clung to Ben. Riley and I held on to each other. Mom rested her head on Dad's shoulder. Aaron was trying to comfort Alyssa who was absolutely terrified.

I let my head fall onto Riley's shoulder.

"Worst case scenario." I muttered.

"But at least, we're still alive." He murmured back after we finally caught his breath.

As the water started to escape from the tunnel, a light started to shine in the tunnel. It was from outside. We all stood up.

"We haven't officially met." Riley said to my mother, "I'm Riley."

"Oh my…" Mom replied, "So you're the young man, Bianca had been telling me about. Every time I spoke with her after the last treasure, if she wasn't speaking about a case, she was speaking about you."

A little embarrassed, I went ahead, almost blushing, and let the two of them talk and get to know each other. I had sent her a picture of Riley and I and told her about him, but it's good that they finally get to know each other.

"Bianca, can I use your phone?" Ben asked.

I nodded and retrieved it from the only area on me that wasn't drenched. It was in the inside pocket of my jacket in a waterproof case. I opened the case and gave him the phone.

He called Sadusky and twenty minutes later, Abby, Riley, Ben, and I were being escorted by the military, FBI and the police out of the national park.

They lead us to the President.

"Mr. President?" One of the President's men questioned him as he walk towards us.

"Greg give us a minute." The President told him.

"Sir for your information, this is the man who kidnapped you." Greg replied.

"As I recall, we were exploring a hidden tunnel and the door closed accidentally and this man, like his sister years before him, saved my life." The President informed him looking at both of us.

"Yes sir." Greg conceded.

"Gates." The President greeted Ben.

"Sir." Ben nodded.

"For the record, after centuries of exploration on this day, you have brought honor to your country and your family." He told us, well I think it was both of us, he might have just said it to Ben, and then looked to Riley and Abby, "You've done your country a great service, I thank you."

"Thank you." Abigail replied. Riley sounded like he was a little too in awe to speak.

"Greg," He called to his man. Greg hand him something, "I thought you might want to take a look at tomorrow's headlines." He handed Ben the newspaper. We both looked at it.

'**_Thomas Gates Proved a Civil War Hero_**'

"Thank you sir." We both replied.

"All of you along with Emily and Patrick Gates, and Aaron Montgomery and Alyssa Howe, will get credit for this discovery."

"And Mitch Wilkinson sir." Ben added.

"Is that right?" The President asked.

"It's true sir." Ben replied.

"Ben, I am curious about that favor I asked you." The President told him, "Any report regarding what's on page 47?"

"I believe I can help with that sir." Ben replied.

"So it's good?"

"Life altering sir." Ben replied.

The president nodded for Ben to follow him. Ben did.

"What's on page 47? Are you talking about the book?" Riley asked him.

"What book?" The president asked. He and Ben talked for a bit and then he left.

A couple of weeks later, there was a huge party for the discovery at Rushmore. I looked over at Mount Rushmore waiting for Riley to finish what he was doing. Rushmore was much prettier at night than it was during the day.

As the fireworks started, Riley came rushing over to me, "I have a fan! Someone actually read my book and asked me to sign it. I'm not the assistant this time! I'm the treasure hunter guy!"

"That's fantastic." I hugged him. "I'm so happy for you!"

As we let go, he asked, "You said you had good news earlier, what's up?"

"It really depends on how you look at it. I mean you can say no if you want to." I started.

"I can't say no if I don't know what it is."

"Well, you see I was talking to Sadusky and Aaron's gonna be a little too busy with another assignment to actually be my partner. I have a new assignment that I need someone's help on. So, I'm gonna need a new partner, preferably one that's technologically inclined and can handle me as their partner with going mad."

"You mean you want me to work with you? Be your partner?"

"If you want to, it's up to you."

"Yes, what's our assignment? When do we start?"

"Well every Moriarty needs a Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to stop him. So to stop the consulting criminal, we're now in a sense consulting detectives. The files John had when we visited, now every case that is linked in any way to the ones in those files come to us." I informed him, "Sadusky promised he wouldn't send anything our way to look at until after the honeymoon."

"So when you want to go?"

"I've told you this before, and I'll tell you again now:" I rested my arms around his neck, "I would marry you tomorrow, if it meant I get to spend the rest of my life with you." I kissed him gently. He deepened the kiss putting his arms around my waist.

When we pulled away, he said, "Let's do it. Let's get the license this tomorrow, and get married this weekend."

"Where do you wanna go?" I asked him.

"Anywhere." He replied.


	23. Chapter 18: A Surprise

**AN: Hi everyone. I'll put in the scene with the Ferrari in the next chapter. I thought it might have taken a while to get his car back. So I did a fluff chapter. Well kinda the Riley/Bianca fluff doesn't come till the end. I kinda gave Bianca and Abigail a shopping day. It's a filler chapter. The car scene will be in the next chapter, probably along with them getting married. I'm not making any promises though. I haven't written the chapter yet, so I can't full say what's in it yet. **

**This chapter is dedicated to and kimboik. **

**Hope you guys like the chapter. It was fun to write, I got to do a lot of online window shopping for this. **

**Happy reading and enjoy everyone!**

The next morning, I went shopping for the things I knew I would need for the weekend. Abby came along to help me pick out things. We were currently in Victoria's Secret trying to look for a few things. So far we had picked out an ivory lace babydoll slip with a lace mesh. We just need to pick out a couple of more tings for the honeymoon.

"Are you two sure you want to elope?" She asked as she showed me a yellow embroidered eyelet babydoll.

"Very." I replied, and then asked about the slip, "Do they have that in some sort of a blue?"

"Yeah." She replied showing me the ice blue and the navy. I picked the ice blue.

"Why the blue?"

"It's one of Riley's favorite colors." I replied.

"Any other colors we might want to think about?"

I thought about it for a moment, and then said decisively, "Purple and red."

She nodded. Eventually we found a purple chiffon and lace babydoll. We were now just looking for something red. She kept showing me different things; I just kept shaking my head.

"What's the matter with these?" Abby asked.

"They're too much. We're talking Riley here. We don't want anything over the top, but nothing too subtle; something sweet and cute, but sexy, nothing overly sexy though that would be too much." I explained.

"You put a lot of thought into this." She replied.

"I put a lot of thought into a lot of things," I shrugged, "and I just know Riley."

We finally settled on a pale pink embroidered daisy fly-away babydoll.

I paid for the dresses, I guess that's a word you could call them, and then we left the store.

"Do you have a dress?" She asked.

"I'm eloping. Why do I need a gown?"

"Because you're getting married." Abby replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "At least get a nice simple dress to do the ceremony in. You can't get married in jeans and a t-shirt."

"Fine." I agreed "Let's look at dresses. If I don't find one though, I'm going without one."

"Do you guys even have a license?"

"We're getting it this afternoon." I replied.

"Where are you guys going to?"

"I don't know. He wants it to be a surprise. I know were spending our honeymoon in Maui, next week. He won't tell me where we're going. All I know is we're not flying there."

"You checked if he had purchased airline tickets to see where you're going didn't you?" Abby asked suspiciously.

"Of course I did. I don't like surprises." I replied.

"I think you'll like this one." She replied.

My jaw dropped, "You know where we're going! That's why you practically jumped up and volunteered to take me. You know where he's taking me!" I was shocked, "Where am I going?"

"I can't tell you that. It's a surprise."

"I don't like surprises!"

"I know." She replied as she started laughing, "That is why this is so funny." After a bit she stopped, "C'mon let's get you a dress."

We went into Nordstrom. She handed me a Theory 'Nikay' A-line black and white cotton blend dress, a Komarov sheer print a-line cerulean dress, a red Nicole Miller front twist lace sheath dress, a blue-green Suzi Chin for Maggy Boutique pleated front v-neck dress.

"Am I getting all of these?" I asked as she handed me a navy blue Laundry by Shelli Segal ponte knit sheath dress, a blue Xscape Illusion Yoke lace sheath dress, and a purple Veni Infantino lace stretch jersey dress and stole.

"You're trying all of them on." Abigail corrected, "We'll see which ones you get after that, and then we'll go to the bridal section."

"These aren't-"

"No, these are for the rest of the weekend and the honeymoon." She replied, handing me a emerald and burlap Lela Rose lace overlay sheath dress, and a grey lavender Donna Morgan ruched chiffon dress.

"I'm apparently not wearing anything remotely casual where I'm going?" I questioned.

"Alyssa and Tess are already packing that bag." She replied.

"I'm only gonna be gone for ten days…" I looked at her oddly, "How many clothes do I need? It's a honeymoon…Isn't the motto with honeymoons, 'the less clothes the better'?"

Abigail rolled her eyes, "Just try these on." She got an attendant and they showed me to a dressing room. Abigail went to the bridal section to find a dress for the ceremony. The only thing we agreed on was for it for be cocktail length because Riley and I were eloping. She brought be back a champagne Pisarro Nights beaded tiered shift dress at first, and then the actual wedding gowns started coming.

"If you want to get me into actual wedding gowns then we'll go to a bridal store, Abby." I told her, "I can't spend all day shopping. I've got a court date to get a marriage license this afternoon."

I finished trying on all of the dresses. I decided to buy a few of them. I had nice dresses at home. I didn't need all of these. Most of them just weren't me and were overpriced anyway.

I bought the dresses and we headed to the bridal store.

'_Oh please just shoot me now._' I thought as Abby dragged me in the bridal store.

Instead of letting Abigail drag me towards many different designers, I headed straight towards the Alfred Angelo section. "If we don't find something from this section, I'm not getting a dress. I have to meet Riley in a few hours. We're leaving right after we get the license, so I have to be packed and ready to go by the time I meet him. I don't have the time to look at every designer. I've looked online and I like this one."

"Good to know." Abby replied. We both looked through the dresses.

I found a dress that I loved that was more for an actual wedding than for eloping.

"That's a pretty dress." Abby said.

"I know. It was the one I wore at my last wedding." I replied, "Let's keep looking, shall we?"

Eventually I found the perfect dress. It was a strapless, princess line, dropped waist, lace dress with crystal and pearl beading. It had a high-low hemline and came in a zipper back so I could put on the dress without help. It was beautiful and simple, and perfect. I bought the dress not really caring to look at the others.

"All we need is shoes and then we'll be set." Abby said.

"I have shoes." I replied.

"Ones that'll go with that dress?"

"Fine, one pair and then we're leaving." I replied.

We headed to DSW to get a pair of shoes for the dress. I got a pair of Lulu Townsend Bridal Gladia satin sandals.

"We're done."

"What about perfume? Anything like that?"

"I have that sort of stuff." I replied, "Are you stalling?"

"No." She replied.

"Yes you are. What's going on?"

"None of us want you two to elope, the only one who seems to be okay with it is you both and Patrick."

"It's our decision. We want it to be short and simple. We don't want the circus of a wedding that happened last time. We just want to get married."

"Why elope? You two could have a simple wedding with all of your families there."

"That's not what we want to do." I replied simply. "We didn't want that the first time either. We don't really care about the wedding; we just want to be married. Now where is Riley taking me for the wedding? What is he planning?"

She sighed, "Islamadora, Florida. It's located in the Florida Keys. You guys are flying down there and getting the license there. He made the arrangements through the help of Ben which is why you couldn't find it."

"He's trying to redo an actual wedding."

"Yeah, a beach wedding in Florida; it's small and simple, just you, Riley, your family, and me. His sister is on a dig and she couldn't get out of it. He didn't say anything about his parents."

I nodded. I didn't think he would mention anything about his parents. He doesn't really talk about them often. His mother had died years ago and his father and him are not very close. "Wow."

"He has everything planned out. I've never seen Riley this organized. You guys are flying down this tomorrow afternoon, so you can get the license tomorrow. There's a three day waiting period, so you guys have to wait until Monday to get married, but that's okay because you're not leaving for Maui till next Wednesday. He figured since you practically planned the last wedding, he would do the same for you."

"Which is why I'm not allowed in the computer room anymore." I replied, smiling. "Since I'm actually getting married, we should find a head piece or something for this dress."

We ended up finding an ivory velvet Iris that was really pretty that I could put in my hair. We also got a bottle of Vera Wang's Princess.

"Do you think we're done?" Abby asked me.

"Let's go back to Victoria's Secret real quick there's one more thing I want to get." I replied. We walked back to Victoria's Secret.

"What are you looking for?" She asked.

"Something." I replied, going back to the lingerie section. I picked up a cherry red VS Logo lace Halter babydoll.

"What is that for?"

"Tonight." I answered simply. I bought the dress and we left.

When we got back to my apartment, Riley and Ben were already there. They were standing in the kitchen talking.

"You two are back early." Ben commented.

"Bianca doesn't really like to waste time when she shops." Abby replied.

I didn't say anything to either comment. I went straight to Riley and kissed him fully and deeply. I pulled away. He looked happy surprised.

"Hello to you too." He smiled.

"She knows about Florida." Abby told him.

"That was supposed to be a surprise." He told me.

"And I got it out of her." I replied, and then looked at Ben and Abby, "Goodbye Abby, I had a great time. Goodbye Ben."

"I think that's our cue to leave." Abby said to Ben. "Bye you two, we'll see you in Florida."

They left and closed the door on the way out.

"So you're okay with the idea?" Riley asked.

"I love the idea." I replied, "It's romantic. How long have you been planning this?"

"I don't know. Since I met your mom, after we found the City of Gold, I guess. I know we had an idea to elope because it was simple, but I knew you would regret it, if you didn't have your family involved. I wanted you to have the wedding aspect too." He explained, "I promised you I would make it up to you-" I kissed him, cutting him off.

Pulling away, I replied, "I love you."

"I love you too."


	24. Chapter 19: Ferraris

**AN: Okay this chapter is short. I wanted to get this last movie verse done before I move on. I've been working diligently on the next chapter. I actually have been writing notes on the next one. I don't know if I will have it up tomorrow. I'm thinking it'll be up more towards Wednesday or Friday. After that will be a chapter or two and then the epilogue, and then this specific story will be over, but will Beauty and the Techie be? That is up to you guys. I have ideas for another story, but I'll discuss that later. Think on it a bit and let me know. **

**This chapter is dedicated to Guin Parris. **

**Happy reading everyone. **

**Chapter Nineteen: Ferraris**

"Okay, so let's see if we've got everything." I said to Riley as we made our way back home after meeting Sadusky to get the files and everything from the case. "We have the files and the notebooks for the case,"

"And the computer files have already been sent." Riley added as he looked through one of the journals.

"We've stopped the mail for the next two weeks, so we don't have to worry about it while we're gone. We have everything packed."

"And our tickets are printed and on our phones, so either way we don't have to worry about them. The printed ones are in my computer bag just in case."

"You really think you going to be needing your computer, Ri?"

"It's for the plane. I don't like to fly. And I'm probably not going to be the one using it, you are since you opted to leave your computer at home."

"You have DVDs in that computer bag don't you?"

"I do, and no, I'm not telling you which ones until we get on the plane."

"More surprises?"

"You're going to like this one as well." Riley replied, "I know what you like."

"That you do." I replied, and then went back to the check list, "Everything is set for the honeymoon, everything's done on that end."

"Even the tours and stuff?"

"We're going on tours?" I asked feigning surprise. We both knew I had the sight-seeing pretty much worked out.

Riley laughed, "If you want to stay in the suite or on the beach the whole time I'm good with that plan too."

"We'll have time to do them both. The schedules pretty lax, there'll be a couple of days where it's just you, me, and nothing to do-"

"I bet there's a couple of things we could do to pass the time." He smiled, "Everything for the wedding is all taken care of too. And no, I'm not tell you anything other than what you managed to get from Abigail." He said looking back down at the journal.

"Um Ri." I said noticing the beautiful red Ferrari we had just passed, I looked at the license. It was Riley's. I stopped at the car. "Riley, you might want to see this!" I called over him. He looked up from the journal and then back at me and the car. He ran over in shock. I handed him the envelope addressed to him on the car. It had the keys inside it. He flipped it over and took out the letter inside of it. It was from The White House. It said 'Tax Free." We both grinned. He opened the door for me to get in. I got in and he closed it. He hopped on the car and started it.

He sighed happily. "I love this car."

He put in gear and started to reverse and hit something.

"Please tell me I didn't back into another car…"

I looked behind us, "Nope. Meter."

"Great…" He said parking it. We got out and looked at the damage.

"It doesn't look too bad." I commented inspecting it. The paint was scratched and the car was dented a bit. The meter was fine. "I can call in a favor from a friend of mine who's a mechanic and they can fix it after we come back."

He looked at me skeptically.

"The guy's a good mechanic. He's not going to hurt the Ferrari." I told him.

"He can fix this?"

"Yes, after we come back." I replied, emphasizing the last three words.


	25. Chapter 20: Certain as the Sun

**AN: Okay, so I actually finished this chapter earlier than I expected. Here is the wedding! The reception will be in the next chapter. In the title of the chapter, is a clue to what the first dance song is going to be. Actually the title of the story should be a pretty good hint too. **

**This chapter is dedicated to Guin Parris as a thank you. Thank you for all of the help with the chapter. I hope it turned out as well as we hoped it would.**

**The next chapter should be out by Wednesday or Friday. **

**I hope you guys like the chapter. It was really hard for me to actually put together. **

**Enjoy...**

**Chapter Twenty: Certain as the sun**

**_…Rising in the east_**

That Saturday, after we flew in, we got our marriage license. Sunday and Monday, I spent time with my mom, my sister and Abigail, while Riley hung out with Ben, John, and Dad. We each went over the wedding, well kind of. Mom explained to me how the ceremony was set up instead of me actually going over it with them.

The bridal succession, I think that's what it's called, was the same as the last ceremony. Abigail was my maid of honor and Tess was my bridesmaid. Ben was Riley's best man and John was his groomsman. The order of both, I thought were kind of funny in a way. They both went from shortest to tallest. Not that Riley is short, he's just shorter than Ben and John. John's over six foot and Ben's six foot, both of which tower a little over Riley, who's around four inches shorter than they are. Not that I have any reason to judge, Abby's towers over me by about a half a foot, and Tess is around two inches taller than Abby, so no room to judge at all on height. I'll be the shortest one in the bridal party, which works out kinda perfectly.

Since the wedding wasn't the most traditional and it was the second time we were trying to do the wedding, we didn't stick with the tradition of the rehearsal or the rehearsal dinner. There wasn't a need for one and it wasn't a requirement, just a tradition.

Tuesday afternoon was the wedding.

"Ready?" Abigail asked me. She and Tess were in pool blue chiffon and satin high-low strapless dresses.

"Yes." I smiled. She handed me my bouquet, which mostly consisted of white roses with some irises peeking out in between the crevices. She picked up her bouquet and handed Tess hers. The guys were already in their places. Mom was outside with the guys. There weren't any chairs. Riley, which after mom had told me why I agreed, didn't see a reason for them. My parents were the only ones watching the wedding, instead of standing right behind us. Since the wedding was going to be short anyway, my parents didn't really care.

Since Tess was the bridesmaid she went out first, she was followed by Abigail. Then it was just me and my Dad.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" Dad asked, "Any second thoughts?"

I looked up at him with a smile, "No, he's the one, Dad…" I didn't even think before I replied. I didn't have to. My smile got brighter, thinking a little on what I had just said, "He's the one."

My dad smiled and nodded. As the music began, we exited the tent.

There were no guests. It was just the wedding party. It wasn't in a church. It wasn't a traditional wedding, but I didn't care. Everything was perfect. Right now, the only thing that really mattered was the person waiting for me at the end of the aisle, and he was looking at me the way I had always hoped.

I kissed my dad's cheek and went to stand in my place. Riley and I faced each other.

"So is this moment everything you hoped for?" Riley asked.

"No" I shook my head with a smile, "It's more. It's much more."

Riley smiled, and we faced the minister, and she started the ceremony.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Riley Spencer Poole and Bianca Eva Gates. With everything I have seen, and every couple I have married, there has always been a uniqueness to them. Riley and Bianca, even though they may be the most one of the most untraditional couples I have had the opportunity to meet, they have reinforced my belief that while love is universal, every couple is unique."

We looked to the minister and she nodded.

Riley started with his vows, "Bianca Eva Gates, when I first met you, I thought you were an enigma. I didn't really understand you, but you were someone I knew I wanted to know. You're intriguing and challenging. At first you were a puzzle I want to solve, but with every piece, I found myself falling more and more in love with you. I was asked when I fell in love with you. To be honest, I don't know the exact moment I fell in love with you. There have been several moments where I've fallen in love with you, and there are still moments now when I'm with you, and I fall in love all over again. I can tell you though, both times I've fallen completely in love with you, everything started when we were finding the treasure. When I realized that, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with a person, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. Take love, multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever... and you still have only a glimpse of how I feel for you. You're my everything and I wouldn't trade that for all of the treasure in the world. Although, not all treasures are national treasures. Some treasures are people and you are and have always been my treasure. Before I met you, I didn't have much of a life, but it was normal and it made sense. After meeting you and getting to know you, I knew exactly what I wanted, but my life didn't make any sense anymore. Somewhere between patching you up in the van after stealing the Declaration of Independence and breakfast at Hagele's, you stole my heart. There were a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together. Through all of those moments, my life lost meaning, and gained a purpose. Before I met you I was worried, I had already met the woman of my dreams and didn't recognize her, but you- you are everything that I've ever wanted, but never fully knew that I did. Because of you I am more open to trying new experiences and doing new things because I know you're going to be right there beside me. You are so much a part of me, I am not really me without you. I'm not as brave or open, you bring those parts out in me because of your fearlessness and your charm. I'm incomplete without you. I realized that when you went away. I look forward to everything we have together and all of the memories we create. I look forward to the good years and the bad because all of them are going to be with you. May you never lie, steal, or cheat. But if you must lie, then lie with me all of the nights of my life. And if you must steal, steal away my sorrows. And if you must cheat, then please cheat death because I could not live a day without you."

I smiled, and, trying not to cry, I started my vows. "Riley Spencer Poole, when we first met, I knew we would get along well. We're so alike and so different in so many ways; I knew we would be great friends. I wouldn't have expected we'd be where we are today. I wouldn't change it for anything though. I knew eventually we'd be close, and we were for a long time, before I realized I was in love with you. We still are. Love is friendship on fire. There's a trust and comfort about it, but there is also passion and desire, and that is exactly how I feel about you. Before I met you, I never thought I would get married. I wasn't really one for romance. I liked the idea of love and to see people in love more than be in love myself. I thought it would be too much of hassle, too much trouble. I was more in love and married to my work. That's changed because of you. I'm glad it did, that lifestyle, even though I was blissfully unaware before you came along, I've now realized it's very empty. That's all changed now. My life's not empty anymore. Because of you my world is much bigger and more open. It doesn't revolve around work anymore. I have a life now. I have love, and I wouldn't trade that for all of the case files or treasure, in the world. I love you more than my work, and for a long time, I couldn't say that about anything other than family. You are so much a part of me that when I'm not with you, I feel like there's a part of me missing. I was once told a life without love is no life at all. I didn't really agree with that for a long time. I thought as long as I had my family and my work, I didn't need love. Love is a leap. It takes a lot of trust and inspiration to make it. I was never really inspired to jump until I met you. You were the first man that I actually was inspired to go for. I wanted something that I wanted. I didn't realize it until later, but what I wanted was someone like you. You are what I never knew I always wanted. I was asked once, when it was that I fell in love with you. I can really pinpoint the exact moment. There were several moments where I've fallen in love with you. I can tell you though; it was when we were finding the treasure. I look forward to being with you. I look forward to all of the years we have together, the good and the bad, and all of the memories we get to create. I look forward to everything we have and get to do because it'll be together. May you never steal, lie, or cheat. But if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows. And if you must lie, lie with me all of the nights of my life. And if you must cheat, then please cheat death because I could not live a day without you."

"By the power vested in me, I am happy to announce you husband and wife." The minister said, "You may kiss the bride!"

Everyone cheered as we kissed happily. We were married. Finally...


	26. Chapter 21: Tale as Old as Time

**AN: Hey everyone, I know this is later than I expected it to be out. Sorry. I've been busy. I've had a lot of exams and I'm moving soon, so that just makes things even more hectic. **

**If the chapter seems a little choppy or jumpy, I haven't been to a wedding or a reception since I was eight, so I have no clue how these things really go. **

**I've got one more chapter before the epilogue. I'm not gonna put a date on it this time. It'll be out soon. **

**Sorry again. **

**Happy reading and hope you enjoy. **

**Chapter Twenty-One: Tale as Old as Time**

**_Song as old as Rhyme_**

**_Beauty and the Beast…_**

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel for the reception. Riley had gotten one of the ballrooms for the reception, which I questioned at first because it was just the eight of us. I stopped questioning once we went inside. It was beautiful. There was one round table big enough to seat all of us. The decorations were blue. There were three waiters who were standing by the food waiting to serve us and a DJ at the front of the room ready to start. The cake was blue and had a beach theme to it. It was decorated with shells, sand dollars, and pearls. At the top of the cake, were a little bride and groom. The groom was holding the bride bridal style. The bride was cupping the groom's cheek. They both had smiles on their faces. It looked like they were about to kiss. It was really sweet. The table that the cake was on was decorated with a spice that looked exactly like sand. And in the 'sand' was a heart, which said just married inside. Around the cake and the heart were white roses and irises.

"Okay, this, this is awesome." I smiled, "Everything is beautiful, Ri."

"Thanks. I can't take all of the credit though." Riley replied, "Your mom and Abby helped a lot."

"Nonsense, we only made suggestions." Mom commented, "The boy did all of the work."

She went to go talked to one of the waiters. We sat and after mom sat down and a couple of the waiters served the wine, which caught me by surprise. It was a white Chardonnay. Usually Champagne was served at weddings. I don't like Champagne. I don't know why, it just tastes odd to me.

"How did-"

"It was a guess. I noticed you would never really take Champagne unless it was me offering it to you when we went to parties and galas after we found the first treasure, which was out of politeness because I didn't know. As I got to know you better, I figured you were more of a chardonnay person because of its flavor and texture."

I smiled, "You were right."

"Congratulations Bianca and Riley." Dad stood, "Riley, I will be the first to admit that I was not fond of you when I first met you. I was wrong about you. When Bianca stood up for you the first time we met, I knew you were different. I know my little girl; she doesn't do that for anyone. She doesn't like people enough. In that moment, I knew you were going to be important to her. You are important to her. And after getting to know you I see why. Welcome to the family, Riley. I love you Bianca. I wish you two the best." Dad finished. We all drank to the toast.

Ben stood after Dad sat down, "I have just a few words to say. Congrats Riley and Bi. Welcome to the family, Riley." He congratulated us, and then said, "To those of you who don't know, Riley and Bianca actually met twice, once on the phone and at the airport. Later that day, they were finishing each other's sentences. I knew from that moment there was something there." Ben laughed and shook his head at the memory, "There was something there between you both. A spark, I guess you could call it. The closer you both got, the more obvious it became. I knew it was only a matter of time before you noticed there was something there too. From what I can see between you two, there always will be. Love you, Bianca. Riley, I couldn't have picked anyone better for my sister. I wouldn't want to either. I wish you both the best." Ben finished. We all drank to his toast. He sat down.

Abigail stood, "I've known Bianca for several years now. We met at the archives through a mutual friend. Bianca was looking for a roommate because she couldn't fully afford the flat that she had picked out by herself. She wasn't an agent for the FBI; she was a detective at the time, a very good one too. She profiled me in less than a minute. Her first question she asked was what part of Germany I was from. Less than a couple of minutes later, she offered for me to be her flat mate. She profiled me, told me who she was, and left. Bianca is brilliant and very observant. She used to profile everyone she met. She knew everything about everyone else, and they knew nothing about her. The first person, she met that I noticed she didn't profile was Riley. I knew there was going to be something different about him. The moment you got rid of the severed head in your fridge and-"

"You had a severed head in your fridge?" Riley whispered to me as Abby continued.

"Experiment, got it from a morgue." I quickly and quietly explained.

"We put food in that fridge."

"It was on a plate." I replied. He opened his mouth to speak again, I quickly said, "I threw out the plate."

"-Riley, you treat her like she's gold. You know her better than I think she lets anyone else know her. I'm very happy for both of you and feel blessed to share this amazing day with you." Abby finished her toast. We all drank to it.

Riley stood to make his toast. "Thank you everyone for coming and for welcoming me into your family. Thank you Abigail and Emily for helping me plan this. And thank you, Bianca, for giving me a second chance. I didn't deserve one, but I am grateful you gave me one anyway. I love you and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you and being married to you." He finished. We drank. When he sat down, I kissed him.

"I love you." I told him. I would have made a speech, but I didn't have one.

The waiters served the food. Everyone talked as they ate. Mom was talking to Abby. Dad was talking to Tess. Ben and John were talking to each other. Riley and I were talking.

"Don't worry about having a speech. You haven't had time to write one." He told me. "I love you is a long enough speech for me. We made our speeches to each other in our vows." He kissed me lightly, and then said, "Severed head really?"

"You're still on that?" I asked. '_Just wait until he finds out why the library is a different wallpaper than the rest of the apartment…'_

"A little. What possessed you to put a severed head in the fridge?"

"It was for research." I replied.

"A severed head for research?"

"The case was messed up." I shrugged, "The killer was psychotic. I was working with drugs and poisons."

"So what happened to the library?" He asked casually.

"A lot of things." I replied, "Back wall's been replaced twice, side wall across from the bookshelves used to suffer from my boredom…That sort of stuff."

"When we get a new house, please don't take your boredom out on the house."

"What makes you think I'm going to be bored?" I asked him with a small smile on my face. Riley looked at me. Before he could reply, I said, "I don't think I have a reason to ever be bored again for two reasons. First, quite a few people in our family, including us, are treasure hunters, and when we're not looking for treasure, you and I have cases to solve. Second, I have you. I am never going to be bored for the rest of my life."

"I'm your source of entertainment?" Riley asked jokingly.

"Of course." I replied laughing.

We joined the rest of the group's conversation that they seemed to have gotten on while Riley and I were talking till it was time to dance.

We danced our first dance to Beauty and the Beast by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. It felt absolutely perfect. It fit us. He wasn't a beast, of course, and I wasn't exactly like Belle, but we were complete different people before we met. I changed for the better because of him. A lot of things in my life have changed for the better because of him. Because of his help, we found the national treasure and the city of gold. My family's name isn't mud or linked with the term 'crazy'. I'm not as crazy.

My father/daughter dance with my dad was to the song Time in Bottle by Jim Croce. I danced to Landslide by Fleetwood Mac with Ben. The last dance Riley and I danced to before the reception was over was Time after Time by Frank Sinatra. It was my parent's song. Well, it was when they were in love. When I was little, Time after Time and Time in a Bottle were the only songs my dad could ever get me to go to sleep to. They were special. Landslide was special to me because of how I could relate to it when it came to Ben. It was usually a father/daughter song, but it fit more to Ben instead of Dad because of how much time I spent around Ben.

It was safe to say it was amazing. I don't like surprises, I really don't, but I loved this one. The next morning Riley and I got on a flight to Maui.

**AN2: If you guys haven't heard any of the songs in the chapter, look them up. They're beautiful songs. **


	27. Chapter 22: Not Going

**AN: Sorry I know it's been a while. I've been busy. This chapter is really short. This chapter is dedicated to Guin Parris and AmyRoxx123. **

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Not Going**

It had been two weeks since we got back home. Ben had gotten a small lead on Page 47 and had been trying to convince Riley and I to help him with it. Well, Riley was almost fully on board with the idea, I was not. Don't get me wrong, I fully believe he found something. I was busy, this case important. If Ian was going to break out, which is a possibility, we had to be three steps ahead of him.

"Bianca, you've joined the others, why not this one?" Ben asked tiredly.

"I'm busy. I have work to do." I replied.

"You and Riley are practically consulting detectives or agents now. You choose your cases." Ben replied, "Can you push one off for a job for the President?"

"The president asked you to look in to it, not us." I replied, "And I never said Riley couldn't help, if he wants to, it's his decision not mine. I'm not pushing back this case. I need to be three steps ahead of the guy."

"Riley, are you on this one?" Ben asked.

Riley looked to me. I gave him a look as if to say go on. I didn't need him on this case quite yet. There really isn't anything for him to do quite yet, except for cataloguing the case, and putting it on a flash drive and then deleting it from the computer. We didn't want it on anything that could be hacked; we wanted to keep everything quite until something happened. When something did happen, I needed him on the case and he knew that.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"I guess it's just you and me then, Riley. Abigail's busy too. She has to oversee an exhibit that's being put together." Ben replied. Abigail rolled her eyes.

"Think of it as a guy's thing." Abigail said.

"You two don't want to know about the page at all?" Riley asked.

"Unless it leads to blueprints of a time traveling Delorean, I'm not interested." I replied.

"Time traveling Delorean?" Abby asked.

"The car from Back to the Future."

"That's fictional." Abby replied.

"It could be built." I argued.

"If it could, what would you need with it?"

"What wouldn't I need with time machine?" I replied to her question with a question. That question was silly and the answer was blatantly obvious. Solving crimes and searching for treasure would be easier and less time conducing with a time machine.

"As **_interesting_** as this discussion is, it's irrelevant to what's on the page." Ben brought us back to focus. "There are no blueprints for the car from Back to the Future in the book and I doubt there ever will be blueprints for one in the future."

"People said that about the national treasure and the city of gold, and look where we are now." I smiled at him.

"I can definitely tell you there are no blueprints on the page." Ben replied, "Riley, let's go, if it's just us this time we should get ahead on research for the page."

Riley nodded and they left.

"Alright. Spill it. Work isn't the excuse. If it is, it's only part of it. If it were just a case, doesn't matter how important the case, you would have pushed it aside for a treasure hunt."

"This case is important, very and I have to stay on top of it. No, it's not the only thing going on…"

"Are you-" She asked.

I nodded.

"How long-"

"Since Easter according to the doctor…"

"When did you-"

"Riley and Ben went to go look into a clue on the page-"

"So, you went to the doctor and haven't told Riley you're pregnant and have been for-" She paused realizing it, "You were pregnant went we found the-"

"Yes! I know!" I replied, "And if I had known I wouldn't have gone. Now how am I going to tell him? I don't even know if he wants kids."

"Shouldn't you have discussed that before you got married?"

"We did and he said he didn't know."

"You better figure out something soon." She stated.

"I know."

**AN2: Hey, if you guys have any ideas on how to tell him and his reaction, comment because I have no clue. Do you think he'd be the type to faint?**


	28. Chapter 23: Well

**AN: Okay guys last chapter before the epilogue. Wow. This chapter was inspired by Seven Heaven with a little help from Guin Parris. Thank you for the help. ****It's a very short chapter but it accomplishes it's chapter is dedicated to Suzy78, lizzygreenfield1995, Guin Parris, MsMaraurder17, and xo-WolfGirl-xo. **

**Happy Reading everyone, and to everyone who celebrates it, Happy Easter. **

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Well**

Riley came back later that afternoon after Abby had gone home. He looked tired.

"I'm guessing you guys didn't find anything?" I asked him.

"Nope, not a thing, well not yet anyway." He replied, "What about you? Anything new on Ian or one of his men?"

"No, actually there really hasn't been anything new on that since we started the case. It's been pretty quiet." I replied.

"That's good…I noticed you looked like something was bothering you this morning, I thought it might have been something new came up…" He said, "If it's not work, is there something else that's bothering you?"

"A couple of things…I've been thinking about that conversation about having kids before we found the city of gold." I replied, not really knowing how to start this conversation. He needs to know.

"Oh?" He looked a little anxious.

"Yeah…We never really came to an agreement on whether we wanted a family or not. We just came to the consensus of I want one and you didn't know, which was something we should have talked about before we were married, but we never fully got around to finishing the conversation." I told him, "I want a family, but I don't want one if it isn't with you. I should have told you that before we got married, but that's part of what I've been thinking."

Riley stared at me for a couple of seconds processing it. He took a deep breath and said, "Okay…Let's go for it then."

"You really want to do the family thing?"

After a moment of thinking about it, he nodded, "Yeah."

"Awesome." I smiled. That takes care of one of my problems, the other is telling him.

"What was the other thing that was bothering you?" He asked.

"I'm eight weeks pregnant." I told him.

"You're pregnant?" Riley asked.

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Eight weeks…" Riley said, " You've been pregnant since Easter. And we were…"

I nodded, "The baby's due in December."

"I'm going to be" He dropped to the floor, out cold before he could finish that sentence.

"I think that went well." I said talking to myself, looking at my husband, "What do I do about him though?"

I took my blackberry out of my pocket and googled 'how to help or wake up someone who fainted'.

**AN2: I'll add the epilogue after Easter. Have a good rest of the week guys.**


	29. Epilogue: It Won't Be Like This For Long

**AN: Okay, guys here is the epilogue. It's actually out before I said it would be. I didn't have very much to finish on it. The epilogue is inspired by the song It Won't Be Like This For Long by Darius Rucker and Reba (the TV show, which is fantastic if any of you haven't seen it), which I don't own either obviously. **

**I would like to say thank you to Guin Parris for all of the reviews, and to everyone who has followed and favorited both of the stories. They would have never been finished if it weren't for you guys. **

**The epilogue is dedicated to everyone who has read both Beauty and the Techie and Beauty and the Techie 2: Book of Secrets.**

**Thanks for sticking with me for both of the stories. **

**Happy Reading!**

**Epilogue: It Won't Be Like This For Long**

**Seven Months later**

**Riley's POV:**

I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. Carissa hadn't gone to sleep all night. Was that supposed to be normal? Bianca and I took turns all night to take care of her and try to get her to go back to sleep.

"I'll get her." Bianca said tiredly as she started to get up.

I shook my head, "No, I got her. I can't sleep anyway."

"You sure?" She asked.

I kissed her head, "Go back to sleep. I've got this."

"Alright..." She replied before going back to sleep. I went over to the cradle.

"Hey Carissa, what's the matter sweetheart?" I asked as I picked her up. She stopped crying. I sighed in relief, she had stopped. I kissed her head, "That's my sweet girl." I held her for a bit feeling myself starting to fall back asleep. "Alright Clarissa, I'm not much of a singer, your mom is tired, so I'm gonna try."

I sighed and started to sing to her a song I had been hearing Bianca sing to her all week. She had sang it so many times this week even I had the song memorized by now.

"Come stop your crying

It'll be alright

Just take my hand

Hold it tight

I will protect you from

All around you

I will be here

Don't you cry..." I started to sing to her. Eventually she fell back asleep.

As the week passed, we both got into the routine of getting up to take care of Carissa. 'I love her, but what I wouldn't do for one night of sleep.'

I poured myself a cup of coffee and put water in the microwave for tea so Bianca wouldn't have to fuss with it when she got downstairs.

The microwave dinged, I took the water out and filled her mug.

"Morning Ri." Bianca greeted as she came down the stairs.

"Morning." I replied tiredly and asked, "How is she?"

"She's alright. She's better now." She replied, "How are you doing?"

"Tired. I don't remember the last time I actually had a decent amount of sleep."

She hugged me with a small smile on her face. "It wont be like this for long, Ri. One day soon we'll look back laughing at the week we brought her home. This phase is gonna fly by. Just hold on, it wont be like this for long."

**Four Years Later**

**Bianca's POV:**

The years past when Carissa was around a year old she started sleeping all the way through the night for the most part. She could hold full on conversations by the time she was two. She was almost four now and very much daddy's little girl, not Riley minded.

"She start's preschool today." I reminded Riley. Carissa missed the cut off date last year.

"Yeah, I know. I'll drop her off and meet you at the FBI building so we can look over those files." Riley replied.

I nodded, "Good plan."

"Although, getting her there is a different problem. She's changed her outfit three times already. I keep telling her she looks great, but she doesn't believe me." He replied, standing up from the table, "I'm gonna go start the car, see if you can hurry her along." He kissed my cheek and headed out the door.

Carissa came out in a little overall dress with a t-shirt and sandals. "I don't wanna go to school. I wanna stay home with you and Daddy."

I smiled and went over to her, "Carissa, sweetheart, we'd like that too, but we've got a lot of work to do today."

"You want me to go to school?" She asked.

"I think you'll like it." I told her.

"But I don't know what to wear." She replied.

"I think you look beautiful." I told her, curling a loose blonde curl behind her ear.

"Really?" She asked.

"Really." I hugged her, "Now your dad's got the car started, you ready to go?"

She nodded, and headed out to the car.

**Riley's POV:**

When I dropped her off at preschool, she was clinging to my leg not really wanting to join the small group of students starting to form. The teacher helped pull her of off me and directed her to the rest of the students.

"What can I do?" I asked her about Carissa. She had been like this at the open house and when we toured the school. She didn't really want to go.

"Don't worry, this will only last a week or two." She smiled, and looked at the students starting to talk to one another, and then looked back to me, "It won't be like this for long. One day soon you'll drop her off and she won't even know you're gone. This phase is going fly by, if you can just hold on. It won't be like this for long."

I thanked her and left. I thought about the words she said as I drove to meet Bianca. She had said something similar to what Bianca had when we brought Carissa home. _It won't be like this for long. _I knew it wasn't. Another year, she'll be actually going to school, and then it won't be very long after that until she's a teenager, and then a few more years after that she'll be in college, and then married. I took a deep breath, trying not to think about how fast it all can go by. Not really wanting to think that it won't be like this for long.

**Bianca's POV:**

"Hey what's bothering you?" I asked as Riley walked into our office, he looked sort of melancholy.

"I was just thinking about how fast time goes by." He replied, "Are you sure she has to go to school? Can't she just stay at home with us another year?"

"I think it would be good for her to go. Gives her a chance to meet kids her age."

"Yes, but first it's preschool, and then it's actual school, and then she'll be leaving for college and getting married."

"She's four." I replied, but I knew sort of what he meant. Time goes by fast. "Who's to say Carissa's the only child we're gonna have? We could have more eventually." I told him, with a small smile on my face, "We've got Carissa for around fourteen more years before we have to send her off to college. That's quite a bit of time before we have to let her be independent. I really think we should enjoy her before she becomes difficult."

"Difficult?"

I smiled, "If she's anything like me, then yeah, she'll be a little difficult when she gets to be a teenager."

"I don't know if I can say I'm really looking forward to that."

"It won't be like that for long." I replied.

We both dug into our work.

It wasn't going to be like this for long.


	30. Authors Note

**Hey everyone, **

**Like the last story, I'm going to have you guys say whether I should add another story to this or not. I do have ideas for another story and a way to bring Ian back, which I have put as a minor subplot in this story. Do you want another story though, or are you good with the two that you guys have? The third one (possibly fourth, cause I have ideas for two stories) would just be me writing without a movie to base it on. I would have all of the characters in the stories and two very young new characters. So it could be a good story, but it's in your hands if it gets written or not. **

**So if you do want another story, leave a comment in the review section or private message me. Talk to me really, I love talking to people about my stories. I like hearing ideas too. **

**This time though, if you do review, comment, or give an idea, I'll give you a character in return. **

**Anyone wanna be an agent? Or work for Ian?**

**It's up to you guys what happens with the new story or if there's gonna be one. **

**So talk to me, tell me what you think.**

**-princessyuki08**


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